Four Horsewomen: Origins
by Mattycollns13
Summary: Superhero AU. After a late movie, Becky, Sasha, Bayley, and Charlotte find something that changes all of their lives. Adding them to the crazy world they had stayed out of until that point. The world of heroes and villains. What will each of them do with their new abilities and how will it affect the four best friends?
1. Chapter 1

"That had to be the corniest movie you've ever made us see with you, Bayley," said Sasha, her magenta hair flaring sideways with the wind as the four women walked down the street. Becky snorted at her as her brown hair tangled with Sasha's.

"You can admit you liked it. I heard you sniffling when Dory found her parents, Sash." This caused Bayley to jump in glee spinning around and walking backwards, facing the group, as they moved further down the street.

"Ha! I knew you would like it! You owe me ten bucks Charlotte!" Charlotte just rolled her eyes and flicked Bayley's forehead causing her to scrunch her face up to try to see it, which Sasha and Becky found hilarious.

"I bought you two Icees. Two, cause you said you needed both blue and red and," Charlotte raised her voice to an impression of Bayley's, "Why would I mix the two together Charlotte, that's weird and I get less of each."

Bayley took it in good nature and just stuck her blue and red colored tongue at the other three girls as they snickered at her. Becky controlled her laughter to check her phone, seeing how late it was she groaned, causing her three best friends to look at her. She showed them the time on her phone, her lock screen a picture of the four of them.

"I have to be at work at like nine am tomorrow or Baron might actually fire me this time."

Sasha rolled her eyes, "Well maybe if you didn't insist on annoying him with chatter every day at work he wouldn't be so up your ass about being on time and working early."

Becky gave Sasha the finger, causing Sasha to lean forward and try to bite it off of her hand. Becky quickly snatched her hand back from her roommate. She glared at her while Sasha just gave her a sickly sweet smile. Before they could say anything else, Becky felt an arm around her shoulders, while Sasha seemed to almost stumble from the weight she took from Bayley as she gave them both one-armed side hugs.

"No fighting you two, we had a great night and we aren't going to end it with you two bickering like old ladies-" Charlotte stumbled back into them, her eyes turned skyward. They all held her steady and their eyes turned up as well. Shooting across the sky was a huge ball of fire. It seemed to be coming down on top of them as it hurtled towards earth. It seemed to change directions and shoot across towards a small park that was nearby. Luckily, Becky thought, it would be too late for anyone to be there; there wasn't even any traffic. The girls felt the crash before they heard the screeching of metal.

None of the girls moved, before Becky felt Bayley's arm shift and saw the girl sprint off towards the wreck. Becky didn't even think twice before going after her friend. She heard Sasha's boot steps right beside her and could hear the click of Charlotte's small heels behind them. When they came to the park there was a small crater, and in the middle of that crater was a car. It would flicker and then reveal some sort of metal pod before flickering back into the disguise of a car.

Bayley had already jumped into the crater by the time the others got there. She was trying her best to break into the pod by lifting the top half, which seemed to have hinges on, up to release whatever was trapped. "Guys someone is trapped in here, help me get this open!"

Becky, Sasha, and Charlotte all ran over and began tugging on the same side that Bayley were. With a small hiss the door seemed to give way and lift up. A puff of smoke showered over the girls as they tried to peer through and see the person that needed help. What they did see made Becky almost lose her lunch. An old man sat in the pilot's chair, everything about him seemed normal, but his eyes kept flickering to milk white every few seconds before appearing blue, just like his pod. An old cowboy hat also sat flickering on the top of his head. But the most noticeable thing about him was the metal rod that was poking through the front of his chest. Around it showed a painting of green blood on his shirt. His eyes flicked to Becky's before moving down the line to each of the other girls'.

Bayley was the first of them to gain her wits; she crouched down and tried to see if there was any way to get him out. But all of them knew that the pipe was most likely the only thing keeping him alive at this point. "Sir, are you okay?" Bayley asked in a mostly steady voice.

Sasha bit out a curse, "Of course he's not okay Bayley!" The old man seemed to chuckle, but winced as it caused him pain to move his chest.

"No, little babay… I'm not gonna be okay. I can see it in your eyes. Feel it in my chest…" He seemed to almost give them a faint smile, and it would have been funny under different circumstances. "I… wanted to come here, to earth, find my oldest son, make things right with him… I even brought his little brother. I think he landed safely elsewhere…" He gave a deep gasp of pain and shuddered and seemed to not be able to speak anymore.

Charlotte bent down to him and tried to soothe him, she kept her voice soft, "Your oldest son? Who is he? Maybe we can find him."

The old man gave a cough, "You earthlings know him as Goldust… I don't have enough time for you to find him. But if you see him… can you tell him I love him. And that I'm so very sorry…" He gave another cough, covering his mouth. "My other boy… Stardust, he is a good boy just gets a bit angry sometimes… I hope his brother can take good care of him."

Becky bent down to him next to Charlotte, "We will tell them both if we can. What is your name? I'm Becky, this is Charlotte, Bayley, and that's Sasha." She gave him a small, sad smile. "Might as well get to know you…"

The old man, gave her a smile, "I'm Dusty…" He shuddered again, his eyes starting to close, "I… I could have gone in worse ways… surrounded by beautiful earth women… Not so bad." His voice turned into a hoarse whisper. "Not so ba-" His head lolled to the side and his breathing went still. Becky put her head down in respect, while Charlotte tried to drag a crying Bayley away from the sweet old man. Sasha was standing back away from the pod, keeping lookout.

All the girls were quiet out of respect and sadness, the only soft sounds of the city behind them and the quiet murmurings of Charlotte's comforting words as they tried to soothe Bayley. They had just seen the father of the well-known hero Goldust die in front of them; they didn't know what to do. Bayley was still staring at Dusty's body with tear tracks down her face. Becky sympathized with her; Bayley sometimes cared too much about other people. It was her best trait, but also had drawbacks like this.

Suddenly, sirens could be heard in the distant. Sasha seemed to spring into protective mode and tried to usher the girls away from the wreck. They didn't need to be around when the cops showed up or they'd start asking questions that led to them getting detained or worse. As Sasha and Charlotte tried to move Bayley out of the crater, Bayley broke free and ran back towards the pod. When the other girls got there, Bayley had her hand paused just outside of the pod. She turned back to them, her nose sniffling cutely, "We… we should close his eyes at least." Sasha sighed, but nodded, prodding her to go on. Bayley's hand reached out and slowly closed Dusty's eyes. She seemed to sit back and sniffle once.

Then a bright light began to build in luminance and Sasha gasped as she lunged forward for Bayley, whom had her eyes closed in prayer. Charlotte tried to take Becky's arm but it was too late. A crystal rose up from behind Dusty's head and shined with deep purple energy. The girls didn't move, not knowing if motion would set something off. It levitated above Dusty's head and dimmed. Becky breathed out a sigh of relief before all of a sudden the sound of breaking glass hit the girl's ear and a shockwave went through each of them before they dropped to the dirt in unconsciousness.

While they lay there, each glowed bright with the same purple light that the crystal had glowed with. Soon they each dematerialized into the air, not knowing that they were being transported back to their houses, into their beds, where tomorrow an amazing surprise would await all four of them. This surprise would shape their lives unlike anything had before and set them all on paths that intersected and paralleled one another. Sometimes they would cross for the better, and sometimes for evil.

And in the distance, through the trees of the small park, a painted face watched each of the young girls disappear. And with each little pixel floating into the air he felt his hate and anger grow. He would get his revenge for them not saving his father; he'd find them and eliminate them. Even if it was the last thing he did.


	2. Chapter 2

Becky groaned as she heard a rapid knocking sound coming from the main room. She laid spread like a starfish, her bed covers tossed half-hazardly to the floor. Her wish for the knocking to stop did not come to fruition and it persisted, even more frantic. Becky growled and sprang up, she charged through her bedroom door, ignoring all the dirty clothes on the floor, and went to her apartment's front door. She tried to rip it open only for it to come off its hinges and almost fall on her. She yelped and sprang backwards dodging it. She looked down at the fallen door, noticing the large dent that was in it right under the numbers.

She looked up and saw a pale and shaking Bayley. She looked from Bayley to the door and back again. "Uh… I missed you too?" Bayley ran into her apartment and slowed herself down enough to sit daintily on the couch. Much different than her usual highflying jump she did when she came over.

Becky heard Sasha's door open and shut and a sleepy Sasha came out. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. She looked up and saw the still shell shocked and pale looking Bayley and gave her a small look of confusion. "What's goin- Bex, what did you do to your hair?" Becky furrowed her brow, her hand moving up to smooth out her locks, and moved to the nearby hallway bathroom that she and Sasha shared.

Her usual mousy brown hair was not what she was greeted with. Instead, bright orange hair, still messy from her tossing and turning in bed, sat on top of her head. "Oh my God…Actually, I kinda like it, but still, what the hell?" She turned around to see Bayley with her arms around herself, her face still drained of any color. "Bayley, what's wrong?"

Bayley finally moved her hands to her bag; she brought a handful of gears and wires out of it. Becky took it from her gently, "Bayley, I know I'm a mechanic, but this isn't something I can fix. What is this?" Bayley finally looked up her eyes showing intense fear, not something that usually marred her joyous features.

"My-my alarm clock. I didn't even hit it very hard. Then I-I tried to leave and ripped my door handle off of my bedroom door. Then I knocked here and I broke your door…" She took a shuddering breath, "I-I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me…"

Becky tried to move to hug Bayley, but Bayley backed away from her, like she was scared, "No, please don't. I don't want to hurt you." Becky continued and wrapped her arms around Bayley trying to comfort her. Bayley seemed to sag into her arms, and relaxed further when Sasha came to sit on the other side of her and join in on the hug.

A couple minutes into the hug, and Bayley started to squirm. She jumped towards Becky and away from Sasha. Sasha frowned and looked at Bayley, "Hey, I might not be a pro hugger like you Bayley, but c'mon." Bayley just leaned forward and touched Sasha's arm gently, trying not to let her newfound strength hurt her friend. Her hand jolted back, and Bayley hissed as she shook her hand.

"You keep shocking me. And not the fun way… it actually really hurts." Becky leaned over and touched Sasha's arm and was met with a jolt of her own. Becky yelped, tried to snatch her hand back, but her violent motion sent her tumbling off the couch.

Sasha stood up and backed away, she looked down at herself still clad in pajamas, and saw a visible flicker of purple lightning run up her arm. She gasped and stumbled back. Becky felt the air become charged in the small space of their apartment. The television turned on for a moment, before it and the other lights that were on shut off. The apartment became rather dim, with only the early morning light filtering in through closed curtains. Becky couldn't make out Sasha's face in the darkness, but she imagined it looked similar to the way Bayley's had minutes before.

Then Bayley spoke up from in between the two roommates, "Uh, Becky?" Becky finally dragged her eyes away from Sasha to find Bayley, whom was close enough to actually see. Bayley's face was open in shock, but she wasn't looking at Sasha, her face and her finger were pointed at Becky.

Becky furrowed her brow, "I know my hair is orange, but you guys seem like you have bigger problems right now." Bayley shook her head and kept pointing, and that's when Becky noticed it. Bayley's face was getting more visible by the second, like someone had lit candles in their apartment. Becky turned behind her to find the source, but found nothing. She turned back around and the light was still there, now even Sasha was visible. She was also staring at Becky as well with her mouth open in shock.

"Becky, your hair might be a little more orange than when you last checked," Bayley said in awe. Becky reached a hand to her wild mane of bed head and pulled down a strand in front of her eyes. She almost bolted to the sink in the kitchen when she saw that the end of her lock was on fire. But before she could freak out too much, she noticed that while it was on fire, the hair wasn't actually burning. And when her fingers brushed the fire, to test her theory, she felt nothing. She just stared at it before looking back at the others, "Uh, I guess I'm on a hot streak of some sort."

"I think all of us," said a voice from the door, "are on something." All three girls turned their heads towards the voice to see Charlotte standing there. She looked mostly normal, but if one examined closely, there were sparkling purple gems by her eye. This would have been just a fashion statement if it didn't match the same gemstone that had seemed to encase her left arm. It was purple as well, maybe a couple shades darker than the lightning that had arced across Sasha's skin.

They all stared at Charlotte who, to her credit, looked to be the most unaffected of the four. She simply looked at her arm then back at them, "It was worse when I woke up. It was covering my whole body. I turned most of it back, but I can't get it to go away on my arm." She simply stepped through the threshold, dodging the fallen door.

Sasha and Charlotte made their way over to the couch and sat down on both sides of Bayley in shocked silence. Becky pulled all of her hair over her shoulder so it wouldn't burn any of her friends and sat with her back resting against Sasha's legs. Sasha finally spoke up, sounding more normal than her body language was saying she was feeling, "What the hell happened to us? I remember seeing the movie, then…"

Becky nodded at her, "Yeah, then we walked home, got in bed, had a weird dream…"

Charlotte sat up quickly, her long blonde hair swinging with the motion, "I had a dream too! Some stupid space pod with an alien in it…" The Bayley patted her leg in excitement, which caused Charlotte to yelp at the unexpected strength of the strike.

Bayley quickly apologized, "I had that dream, Dusty and then that glowing and then I woke up…" Bayley looked from Becky to Sasha for some clarification. Becky could only feel a warm hand of realization reach into her chest and pull at her heart. They had all had the same dream, which probably meant…

"So it wasn't a dream. I remember that crystal exploding. That's what must have caused this…" Charlotte seemed to nod in agreement, her face not looking happy at all. Becky gulped and held out her hand, a spark came from her palm causing her to close her eyes. When she opened them again a ball of fire sat in her hand. She looked up at the rest of her friends and saw them all looking at their own hands.

Charlotte causing her skin to change back and forth between hardened crystal and the smooth fair skin it usually was, Sasha letting sparks dance between her fingertips, and Bayley was poking at her biceps to see if there was any change. Becky simply stared into her own created fire and closed her fist around it, extinguishing it.

Charlotte finally put her arm down and looked between them, "We need some help. No way are we gonna be able to control these. Plus, we might be able to turn back normal if we get help soon enough."

Becky jumped up and spun around to face her friends, "Get rid of them? Guys we have freakin' superhero powers. That means we should find a quiet place and practice! Then we can help people." Becky bounced up and down excitedly, causing some sparks from her hair to fly in all directions.

Bayley and Charlotte looked unsure at Becky's suggestions, but Sasha stood up and smiled her usual Sasha-like cocky smirk. "Bex, that is a great plan. I know a place. Let's go. Once you get changed that is."

Becky frowned at her roommate, "Oi, what's wrong with my shirt from yesterday?"

Sasha was already moving to her bedroom to change, "Well it's already half burned off!"

Becky looked down to see that her shirt had in fact been set ablaze by her hair, her bra from yesterday peeking through where it had burned, but had not yet caught on fire. She pouted, dragging herself to her room, leaving Bayley and Charlotte sitting on the couch. She had liked that shirt.


	3. Chapter 3

"Are we going to be arrested for being here Sash?" Becky looked around in awe at the empty warehouse. It had some boxes in it, as well as a nice looking low rider tucked away in the corner.

Sasha rolled her eyes at her now orange haired friend, "No, its my warehouse. Used to be my dad's…" She trailed off uncertainly. Becky winced on behalf of her friend. All four girls knew what had happened with Sasha's childhood. She had been left on a doorstep in Boston as a baby and had a really rough life growing up. When she had been eight a nice man, Eddie Guerrero, had come and adopted her. Sasha and him had been as close as could be. But when she went away to college at eighteen he had died, murdered by a couple of thugs for his wallet. Sasha didn't like to talk about it and the other four girls respected that. They had just felt honored to be told that piece of her history in the first place.

Becky pointed over to the low rider, "That his?" She hoped this wouldn't set Sasha off. The last thing they needed was for Sasha to spark up and blow out the city's power grid.

Sasha gave her a small sad smile, "Yeah, it was his baby. He used to tell me he wasn't sure which one of us would get to go to college." She gave a watery laugh, "He'd let me help whenever she needed repairs though. It probably needs a tune up… if you wanted to take a look sometime?" Sasha tried to play it offhanded, but Becky felt a warm glow in her chest. It wasn't everyday that Sasha was so openly friendly. She usually had to pull it out of her kicking and screaming, or just accept that Sasha would only show it in little actions and comments throughout the day.

"I'd love to take a peek! She's a beauty!" Sasha gave her a small smile, but let it drop and turned towards the several empty boxes they had Bayley set up for them with her newfound strength. Bayley and Charlotte had accompanied them here, but had not been as excited about their abilities as Becky and Sasha were. Bayley still looked afraid to touch anything, and the usually calm Charlotte was looking more and more frayed by the second. Bayley had excused herself to go get lunch with someone she had been furiously texting the whole morning, while Charlotte simply said she had to meet her father. Becky and Sasha let their friends go, telling them to be careful. But for the two still remaining, it was time to be very un-careful.

Becky lit her palm on fire and through the tiny fireball between her hands, examining it. She had gained even more control since this morning, after using her shower to put the ends of her hair out. She had focused much of the warm energy flowing through her to her arms and hands. But it took her an amazing amount of concentration to keep it there. She looked at Sasha who had held her own hand up, purple sparks crackling between her fingertips. Sasha smirked at her, jerking her head towards the boxes.

"Only way we are gonna get full control is seeing what we can do. Ready to train?"

Becky grinned right back at her roommate, "Bet I hit more targets than-" she cut herself off midsentence as she saw a flash of black and gold near a window towards the top of the warehouse. She searched the roof again, but saw nothing. She shook it off and launched a fireball at a makeshift box target. It struck, causing the box to give a small poof of an explosion and begin to burn. She turned back to Sasha victorious, "I'm gonna kick your arse at this!"

Sasha merely gave her a withering smile before pointing her arm at her own box target and letting the lightning flow into it.

Bayley bounced her leg as she sat at the small outdoor café in the city. She looked down at her legging clad leg moving up and down causing the colors to blur together in a pleasant way that calmed her down. Or at least it did, before she noticed that the pavement where she had been bouncing her leg had begun to crack under the pressure. She forced her leg to stop, her voice letting out a small 'meep'.

She checked her phone for what seemed like the millionth time. But before she could text her friend again to see where she was, she saw her making her way through the throng of people. She was clad in her signature leather jacket. Bayley always wondered if it was one leather jacket or if she had multiples in her closet for emergencies. Bayley shook her head, not important right now Bayley. She gave her friend a small smile as she sank into the chair across from where Bayley had been.

"Oh my God, I'm exhausted. We were up all night taking care of stuff and I barely got any sleep, so this better be good, B." Paige gave her a cocky grin, "You know how I can get when I don't get my beauty sleep."

Bayley grinned at her long time friend, "I remember vividly how cranky you could be in the mornings. Perk of being your roommate in college." Paige gave her a laugh, but when Bayley didn't join in Paige frowned at her.

"What has you so in a tizzy that you demand I meet you here? You are usually the one who asks nicely out of the two of us." The waiter brought the two cups of coffee that Bayley had ordered for them both. Paige gave him a smile of thanks and took a sip, groaning in relief at what Bayley knew to be her favorite type of coffee.

Bayley twitched nervously and didn't touch her drink, "Uh, well, I had an experience last night…"

Paige raised an eyebrow at her, "I know you didn't call me up and demand an early lunch with me just to tell me you got lucky."

Bayley's eyes widened and she felt her face heat up in a blush. She sputtered at her friend while Paige just laughed. Once Bayley had regained her composure somewhat she bent towards the middle of the table, dropping her voice to a whisper, "No, I mean a super powered experience." Paige's eyes widened and darted about the small enclosure outside the café. She slapped a twenty-dollar bill on the table and pulled Bayley out of the café by her arm. On the way out of the gate that led to the street Bayley bumped into a man, she was so focused on Paige pulling her away that all she managed was to apologize over her shoulder. She dug her heels into the pavement for a moment to try to be a little more considerate to the man she just bumped into, but when she turned her head there wasn't anyone around. Paige regripped her wrist and didn't stop pulling Bayley until they made it into an alley.

She turned and began to scan Bayley from head to toe. "Did a villain find you? Did they hurt you? God, I don't know how they would know that I knew you, I-"

Bayley gently placed her hand over Paige's mouth. "No, I- think I got superpowers. Well, no, I know I did. But I don't know how to deal with them, and since I know you have powers and you are part of The Sentinels I figured you'd know what to do… or what I should do."

Paige just looked at her and breathed out heavily. She put her hands on Bayley's shoulders and forced her to look into her eyes. "You're okay though?"

Bayley shrugged, "Just freaked out. Not sure if I am excited to have powers and everything, or sad I can't be how I used to be. It's a weird feeling."

Paige gave her a small sympathetic smile. "Most sane people go through that feeling. You don't look any different. What happened?"

Bayley then retold the story of finding the space pod and the last moments of Dusty's life right before the crystal exploded. Bayley made sure to leave Sasha, Becky, and Charlotte out of it. She knew how protective people could be about their identity once they got powers and she wouldn't betray her friends' trust, even for Paige, without their permission. Paige sighed and leaned against the wall. "Yeah, that's what we were dealing with last night. Goldust was wrecked. Took Roman and Generico to calm him down." She took another sigh before pushing herself off the brick wall of the alley and gave Bayley a small grin. "Super strength though. That's not bad. Not as cool as my energy manipulation, but close."

Bayley gave a hoarse chuckle, "It wasn't cool for my alarm clock this morning. I smashed it to smithereens without trying at all. I was so scared to give my, er, friends a hug cause I might break them… I don't know how to control it." Her voice was quickly becoming hysterical, but she felt Paige wrap her arms around her and squeeze. Bayley cautiously put her hands on Paige's leather clad back, not putting any pressure behind it.

"I know how much you like hugs, and I'm gonna give you all the one's you need until you figure out how to control your strength. I'm sure your other friends will do the same if you tell them."

Bayley nodded into Paige's neck in agreement before gulping, "How do I learn to though?"

Paige pulled away and looked up at her, "Well first, I'm gonna talk to Finn about getting you a place with me. You're not just a powered person now, B, you are an overall good person. Best person I've ever met." Bayley blushed at the praise before Paige continued, "If anyone deserves a spot on The Sentinels its you." She gave Bayley a bright smile, "And after that, me and some of the other guys and girls will work with you. But that's only if you want me to. I won't say a word to Finn if you want to keep this a secret."

Bayley clenched her jaw. When Paige had gotten powers Bayley had been supportive of her college roommate, then also current roommate, but when Paige had joined the hero team she had gotten frightened that someone would find her out and track Bayley back to her. She had helped Bayley get a new apartment and now met her once a week for lunch at the very least. That didn't even include all the texting that they were able to do after Goldust had used his technopath powers on Paige's phone. "You wouldn't tell your team leader about me? Don't you have to do that?"

The Sentinels were a tight group of heroes that went out as a team to assist the world. There were several of their number in the city as well in other cities across the globe. They had the permission of the United Nations to operate in most countries and had thus far been very effective against world ending drama. Paige had been a member for three years. A year after she discovered her energy manipulation. A old member by the name of Lita had come and requested her to join and Paige had jumped at the opportunity. They were a tight knit group that had to trust each other.

Paige rolled her eyes, "Since when do I follow all the rules? I'm a hero, not a loser. Plus, you are my best friend. You used to be the first and only one who knew my secret, if you want to keep this to yourself, then the rules can go screw themselves."

Bayley giggled at her friend's antics before gulping. This was the moment of truth. "Do you trust Finn?"

Paige seemed to catch the hint at what Bayley was getting at. "Yes, with my life." Her eyes shined with hope at seeing more of her best friend.

Bayley sighed and nodded, not being able to resist those eyes. "Okay. I'm in." She had never seen Paige's smile so bright after that.

Charlotte sighed at the empty house. How could her father forget they had a lunch date again? She had planned to storm into his house in a rage and tell him off. Especially after what happened this morning, she needed her dad just for some normalcy. She would never tell him what had happened to her. He would never look at her the same way again. He would despise her, especially with what happened to Reid.

Charlotte closed her eyes and took a breath. Not opening that can of worms. Not today. She sighed and moved to search the house for her father. She had waited at the restaurant an extra hour to give him a chance to make it. It would have been acceptable because some of the roads were blocked off with some of The Sentinels hero team trying to take down notorious villain The Nature Boy.

She felt her face morph into a grimace at the thought of villains and heroes. They had cost her a lot more than some stupid detour. She had walked around the house twice by the time she thought all this. With no sign of her father, she felt her anger pick up again. There was only one place her could be, his office. The one room he had told her never to go in as a child, and that rule carried over to her adulthood.

She found the office and when listening closely heard no noise coming inside of it. She knocked on the door, the rule for if her or her brother wanted their dad and he was in there. When there was no answer she growled in frustration and rammed her head into the door. It moved ever so slightly and her eyebrows pricked up. It had never been unlocked before, she had always been a daddy's girl growing up so the thought of disobeying her father's one big rule had never crossed her mind, even in her disrespectful teenage years. She moved her hand towards the knob before the shutting of the front door caused her to jump away.

"Charlotte?" Her dad called for her from the other room. She sighed and moved towards the foyer to greet him. He saw her and tried to give her a smile, but her glare made him duck his head down. "I missed lunch. I'm sorry. I got caught up at work, then that stupid hero business got in the way-"

"I waited an extra hour for you." Charlotte cut him off, "If you are going to lie, at least lie well. I can smell the alcohol on your breath."

He winced, "I-Its-," he sighed; "It's a tough day today." His head dropped to his chest, and Charlotte felt her heart break a little, but her anger was still stronger.

"Don't you think I know that? He was my brother! I'm hurting just like you and you couldn't even take a day to spend time with me so we could grieve together? His death changed everything for me, just like it did with you." Charlotte felt tears prick at her eyes as she thought about her brother, and the aftermath of his death. "I lost my brother, then my marriage fell apart because I couldn't deal with it. I need you to be here for me like I'm trying to be here for you."

Her dad growled, "I know, but those damn heroes had to pick today to wreck more of the city. All that destruction they cause hurts people. Someone needs to stop them!"

"Maybe so, but that person isn't you," Charlotte frowned when she saw a defiant gleam in her dad's eyes, but ignored it to continue, "You still have a kid who needs you. A daughter who hasn't seen the person she loved growing up in three years because of this."

Her anger finally subsided and she placed a hand on her dad's shoulder, squeezing until he looked up at her. "Go brush your teeth and change. We'll go to Reid's favorite restaurant. I'm driving, you're buying." She saw him open his mouth to object, "No. You owe me this after today. Whatever you had planned, cancel it. They'll understand."

He gave her a sad smile, but nodded. He moved off towards his room to do as he was told. Once he was out of sight, Charlotte staggered over to the nearest couch and collapsed onto it. She let her head fall back and gaze at the high ceiling of her father's large house. She was able to see the cloudless sky through on of the skylights and let her mind wander. Then she saw movement on the skylight, her dazed eyes grew sharper as she tried to pick out the motion, but a loud bang from her father shutting his door snapped her attention back to the hallway for a split second. When she looked back up all she could see was the cloudless blue sky. Probably just a bird.


	4. Chapter 4

Paige tapped her foot impatiently outside of Finn's room. He only lived on the compound so these were his private quarters. She still had an apartment downtown that she used to maintain a somewhat normal life when not on call for the team. She was about to knock again, it wasn't that big of a room and unless he had a lady friend over he should have heard her, when the door opened. Finn stood there in basketball shorts and a nerdy T-shit. A fact Paige was jealous of, due to her wanting to maintain her secret identity, she had to keep her costume and mask on around the base.

Finn gave her a small smile, not disturbed by her suit and mask. A simple and functional leather jacket, with a hood and a bandana like piece on the side to drape over her face, on top of spandex pants and a Kevlar reinforced tank top. She'd have to get the number for the guy that made their stuff. "Shimmer," Finn said using Paige's hero name, "what can I do for you?"

Paige pushed her friend into his own room and shut the door behind them. She ignored all the occult books and creepy statuettes of different mythological beasts. "I need to talk to you about something that doesn't leave this room."

Finn chuckled, "Well the only other reason you would push me into my room is if you were finally admitting your undying love for me."

Paige rolled her eyes and punched him in the shoulder, hard. "You would be so lucky, Balor. No, I need to talk about a powered individual I discovered. I want her here, with me on the team."

He stared at her for second before sighing and moving to a chair further in his room, "You know I need more than that, Shim."

Paige scoffed, "Bullshit. You don't even know my first name and you not only let me be on your team, but you are also the best friend I have here."

Finn gave her a smile, "That's not what I meant. I don't need to know names or anything, but I need to at least meet them. I can't just add someone on to the team without assessing them." His smile turned a little apologetic, "Not even on your word."

Paige groaned, "But she just got her powers and we don't have a mask or a suit… She doesn't even know how to control her powers and doesn't have a name…" She sank down into the chair opposite of Finn and he turned his body to face her completely.

Finn then interrupted her rambling before she could go farther, "And she has to have this figured out now?"

Paige threw her head back and sighed, "I guess not, but I had this all figured out by the next day when I got my powers. She helped with most of that. I am just so excited we will get to spend time with one another again…"

Finn smiled, "I'll meet her and you can let her decide all these things before I do. But if she is friends with you, and by the sound of it you two are super close, then she must be a great person. What's her power?"

Paige was already starting to smile under her mask, "Super strength. It hit her hard cause she really likes hugging people so… I hope she wants to do this. I miss her like crazy…"

Finn leaned across and grabbed her hand, "Hey, if she wants in and we can help her control her powers then we will do what we can. Plus, even if she doesn't get in doesn't mean you won't get more time with her."

Paige furrowed her brow, "What do you mean?"

Finn sat back and smiled softly at her, his Irish brogue coming out smoothly, "You cut down your time with her and made her move out of your apartment and into another place so she would be protected in case any bad guys figured out your identity and connected you to her, right?" Paige nodded at him, "Well now that she has powers she can defend herself better now. Once she learns to control her strength so she doesn't kill anyone."

Paige had perked straight up in her chair as Finn went on, her back rigid in realization. He couldn't see it, but a huge grin had lit up under her mask. She sprang up and ruffled Finn's hair, "Thanks Finn! I'll talk to her and then I'll text you so we can set up a meet." She bounced out of the room with a new happiness about her, dark locks falling out from under her hood. Her phone already out of her pocket and holding down the button for her first speed dial contact, Bayley.

Charlotte loved her job. The people, however, she didn't like at all. She smiled and nodded as another suburban mom who came in here to chat with her friends rather than work out told her about her son's achievements. Charlotte didn't even know the little brat. When she was finally able to excuse herself from the woman in her group workout class, she knew the day was only going to get worse. Her boss was waiting right by the office door. If there was anyone that Charlotte hated here it was Tyler Breeze. He looked at her and looked at the time on his phone in a show of checking the time.

"You're late for your one on one at 1:30," He said while running fingers through his long hair.

Charlotte clenched her jaw and balled her fist up, her gut pulling uncomfortably as she felt her knuckles begin to crystalize, "Yes, I know. But I did not want to be rude." She left the part about how Tyler was probably the rudest out of all the people that worked here, but hopefully her faux happy tone would send that message across without him being able to prove she was thinking it. His narrowed eyes said it did.

"Well hurry up. After you are done with Miss Bliss you can get out of my hair for the day." He rolled his eyes and walked into his office shutting the door behind him.

Charlotte grabbed the ends of her hair and pulled as she grunted in agitation. One of these days she would quit here and punch that guy in the dick on the way out. But now she had a customer who actually wanted to get better and put effort in. That might cheer her up before the end of the day.

Bayley had forgotten how tiring those four sets of stairs could be to get up to her old apartment. She looked at the familiar door and tested the knob to see if Paige still kept it unlocked. Luckily, it opened and Bayley was allowed access to a place she hadn't been in for the last several years. She smiled as nothing had changed in the living room or kitchen from what she could see. Paige was as messy as ever and had left beer cans and Cheetos wrappers on the living room table. Bayley sighed, this was home.

Paige came out of her room in sweatpants and a black, like Bayley expected any other color, tank top. She beamed when she saw Bayley and bounced over to hug her. Bayley cautiously wrapped her arms around her friend, not wishing to hurt her. When they had finished Paige led her over to the couch and swept all the crumbs that she had there onto the floor so they could sit.

"So," Bayley said, "What did you call me over here for. It's not like you to let me come to your apartment. You usually wanna meet somewhere in the middle so it's harder for someone to track us."

Paige sighed, "Yeah, but you are super strong now. I think you can handle anything anyone could throw at you." Bayley blushed at the praise before Paige continued, "Makes me feel better that you are safer being close to me again."

Bayley smiled and squeezed Paige's knee. She knew Paige was not good with telling people how she felt. Bayley was one of the few who got to see this side of Paige with no defenses up. Even though Paige was more open, her body language told you just how much talking about her feelings with her eyes looking anywhere but at Bayley's face and her fingers twitching in her lap.

"Well I'm glad. Maybe I can see more of you now?" Bayley asked hopefully. She loved hanging with Becky, Sasha, and Charlotte, but Paige had been her best friend long before she met them, and it sucked that she couldn't introduce them to each other, due to Paige worrying about getting people hurt with her identity.

Paige jumped and a huge smile broke out on her face. She grabbed Bayley's hand and squeezed it. "Yes, that's what I want to talk to you about. I talked to Finn. I didn't give him your name or show him a picture or anything. I didn't know if you wanted to keep it a secret like me, or if you were gonna wear a mask, but he said he would meet you and try to help you get used to your super strength. And he said that he'd be willing to consider you to join the team!"

Bayley felt her face heating up a bit, "Whoa, Finn Balor… That's so cool!" She squealed a bit in fangirl fashion. "God, I hope he never finds out I dressed as him for Halloween…"

Paige chortled, an evil look coming over her face, "Oh, I can't believe I forgot that! I'll have to tell him! I think I still have the pictures!"

Bayley slapped her arm, "Don't you dare. Or I'll tell everyone who your hero crush was!"

Paige narrowed her eyes, "You wouldn't."

Bayley gave her a small smile and began humming Itsy Bitsy Spider. Paige raised her hands in a surrender motion, "Fine you win. No pictures."

Bayley winked at her and tapped her nose. "Good girl. Now, we have things to discuss?"

Paige nodded and folded her legs up on the couch so she could get more comfortable. "Do you want a mask, or a hero name to protect your identity?"

Bayley sat back and thought about it, everyone she knew well enough to be held against her had powers themselves. Becky, Sasha, and Charlotte would be able to handle themselves and Paige had been handling herself for years. Her parents were dead and she didn't have any siblings… "No, I don't mind. I just want to be Bayley." She bit her lip nervously, "Is that okay?"

Paige smiled at her friend, the light reflecting off her lip ring, "Of course it is, sweetie. I just needed to know so I can tell Finn."

Bayley smiled, "Set up the meet with him. I'm free basically anytime this week." When Paige just bit her lip Bayley frowned, "What?"

Paige grabbed her hand and hauled her up. They began to walk towards Bayley's old room and Paige said nothing and just swung the door open. Bayley felt nostalgia grip her heart as the walls were still covered with the pastels that she had chosen for her room all those years ago. It was completely empty, just as it had been the day she moved out. She turned to Paige confused, and saw how twitchy Paige was. Her fingers gripped together tightly to stop from fidgeting and her teeth sinking into her rosy bottom lip.

"I was thinking, if you wanted, you could move back… I miss having you around and I feel like with us staying together it would help with the drive time and commuting," Paige said while blushing, "You'll be safe with your powers and I just want you arou-"

"Yes," Bayley said without hesitation, a huge smile pulling at her cheeks. As cute as she thought it was when Paige rambled, she was too happy to let it go on too long.

Paige beamed and hugged her super tight, which Bayley returned cautiously. Paige led her back to the couch where they popped in Bayley's favorite season for Friends while they talked about when Bayley would be able to move in and when the meeting could happen with Finn. Eventually it got so late that Paige demanded Bayley stay. She let the girl borrow some of her clothes and tried not to laugh when she came out with Paige's Suicide Silence shirt on with black yoga pants, looking out of place in the graphic T-shirt.

Bayley fell asleep next to Paige in the bed and Paige followed her soon after, with a giant smile on her face.


	5. Chapter 5

Becky groaned as she laid face down on Sasha and hers' couch. She was sore and tired. She had been training with Sasha for the last couple of hours, and then Baron, cause he and Cass couldn't survive for one day without her at the shop, had called her into work. So not only was she tired from the practice with her powers, but her fingers itched and ached and her eyes ached from being under the hood of a car all day.

Her orange hair had been a surprise at the shop for about half a second. Baron simply shook his head and muttered something under his breath. Cass had just raised an eyebrow tilted his head and said, "You know 'Zo is gonna be pissed you let someone else do your hair." Becky let out a chuckle at that memory. She loved Cass, and even Baron sometimes, but she had a special place in her heart for Enzo. He was her hairdresser and friend that she had met through Cass. Sasha thought she was insane when she saw Enzo's hair but Becky didn't go to anyone else. But she couldn't really say what had happened to Cass to make her hair orange so she will, eventually, have to face the music.

After several minutes of resting face down on the couch, she pushed herself up, her corded muscles aching in protest, and looked around the apartment. Sasha should be back by now. She didn't have work today at the boutique and had wanted to stay and practice more with her electricity. She didn't see Sasha in the kitchen and she obviously wasn't here in the living room watching their Netflix queue that had way too many of Sasha's anime on it. Ones that Becky would never admit to liking unless under penalty of death. So she stood up and walked over the Sasha's room to check and see if she was in there. The lamplight that was shining through the crack in the door said that she was most likely in there.

Becky knocked and heard an unintelligible grunt come from the other side. She pushed open to see Sasha stitching together a small jacket. It was black and made out of nice leather. She had a white mannequin in front of her that had pins and all types of other things hanging on it and sticking out of it. Becky whistled at Sasha's usually clean room.

"It looks like you brought your work home today." That got a small chuckle out of Sasha, as she seemed to finish designing whatever it was. Becky was not a clothes person. If it fit her and was comfy and looked kinda cool she'd buy it. Most of her shirts had grease and oil stains on them anyway. Kinda dangerous now that she could spontaneously catch on fire… She'd need to fix that.

Sasha stood up and put the jacket on the mannequin before picking up a recycled motorcycle helmet that had been refitted with a tinted and shaped visor to contour to a persons face, as well as had been cut so that the person's mouth was visible. She turned back to Becky and made a gesture to the mannequin, "Well what do you think?"

Becky furrowed her brow, "What am I looking at here?"

Sasha rolled her eyes, "You are looking at my superhero costume. We are gonna go out and kick ass. Just like you said. We can take the streets by storm." She let electricity crackle between her fingertips.

Becky gave her a lazy grin, "That was a good pun. I approve."

Sasha did a little mock bow, "I learned from the best."

Becky frowned, "You want to go out soon? But we just started doing this. We don't even have our powers under control! It takes me some concentration to simply not catch my own clothes on fire and show everyone all the goods!" Becky watched Sasha laugh when she did an exaggerated motion towards her breasts.

When Sasha finished laughing she just smirked and pulled a second mannequin out of her closet. On it was a long coat. It was black and had several buckles and a high collar on it. Becky wasn't a clothes gal, but damn did it look like something she'd like. Under the jacket were shorts that would come down to about mid thigh and were a lovely clover green. Sasha smirked at what must have been a look of awe on Becky's face.

"This is for you. It's completely fireproof. You can still flame on but the fabric won't burn. I know a guy, don't ask too many questions. I didn't really know what you wanted to do for a mask though." She frowned, but Becky gave her a giddy, hold on motion and sprinted towards her room.

She dug into her piles and piles of dirty clothes and grabbed a black bandanna and grabbed her welding goggles that she insisted on wearing at the shop off the living room table. She came back in and tied the bandana around the lower half of the mannequin's face and put the goggles on above that. She grinned back over to Sasha who nodded in approval. Becky took a step back to come side by side with Sasha and gazed at the two mannequins.

"You know," Sasha said, "We can do some real good in the streets. The Sentinels are off fighting big global scale stuff, but they ignore the street crime. The gangbangers and rapists. There aren't many people on the streets dealing with them. Sure you've got Willow, Punk, and Ambrose doing their best, but even they can't hit everywhere."

Becky nodded, familiar with the vigilantes and heroes mentioned, "We have to do this the right way though Sasha. We can't be like Punk and let it get out of hand where innocents are getting hurt and sending more bodies to the morgue."

Sasha tensed, but stiffly nodded. "Fine, that's fair. Tomorrow we can go out and see how it goes. Put everyone on notice that The Boss and…" She prompted Becky who just looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"Uh, to be determined." She informed Sasha. Sasha rolled her eyes, but smiled.

Becky put her fist out for Sasha and she smiled good-naturedly. Sasha put her hand on top of Becky's and they did their signature handshake; just a simple downward pump of their fists before knocking them together. Tomorrow night, the city would be a little bit safer if they had anything to say about it.

Charlotte had an even worse day since leaving the gym. She had completed her day class with Alexa and then gone on to do her own workout before going home. Sadly, the extra few minutes from before cost her and she was not able to beat the rush hour traffic that she usually did. So after she had sat through that for an hour and a half, she arrived at her apartment and had been locked out due to their being an infestation of bed bugs. So she would need to stay at her father's mansion for a couple of days while they fumigated the building.

So she jumped back in her car and drove to the outskirts of town to her father's place and practically sprinted out of the car for some food. She ransacked her father's pantry for anything with protein so she could refuel after her workout. After she basically vacuumed in a protein bar and some leftover grilled chicken, she went in search of her dad. After doing a thorough search of the house she deduced he was not home. So she went and collapsed on the couch in a very ungraceful manner. She stared at the ceiling for what seemed like hours before deciding she would go and get ready for bed. She trudged over to the hall bathroom, so as not to walk up the stair until she absolutely had to. On her way there she heard a small beeping noise. She stopped and listened hard again, it sounded like it was coming from a few doors down. She followed it and came to the closed office door of her father. The beeping had gotten steadily louder and there was no doubt that there was something behind the door.

Charlotte would be lying if she said the curiosity hadn't been killing her since yesterday when she was so close to breaking her father's rule. Her hand twitched towards the knob, but pulled back. Charlotte growled at herself, "Dammit, you are thirty, not a freaking teenager anymore. Get over yourself." Her hand made for the door handle. All the thoughts in her mind running wild to how her dad had been acting in the years since Reid's death. Maybe she'd finally understand him a little. He couldn't be too mad.

The door swung open and Charlotte stepped in, flicking the light switch on in one graceful motion. Her body tensed, her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. She gazed at the walls and what lied in them with shock, horror, and fascination. Like a car wreck video you can't look away from.

"Oh my God."

Bayley had woken up the next morning curled around Paige. She sighed in happiness at the warmth and familiarity of it all. She didn't want to get up, and she didn't want to miss this chance where she was actually curled protectively around Paige. Usually Paige was the protective one, and to see her balled up on her side with hair falling in her face, so small and peaceful, made Bayley's heart feel warm.

When it finally couldn't be avoided anymore, Bayley got up and through on her clothes from yesterday. She folded the clothes Paige had let her borrow and scribbled a note to her friend. They had talked about when she would move and decided she would start bringing clothes and toiletries over the next few days, and then they'd carefully move her heavier furniture that they were keeping using Bayley's new strength. She smiled; guess it wasn't so bad having this.

She finally signed the note with a smiley face before leaving. She would swing by her apartment and get some clothes and some other necessary items before coming back and making breakfast for the both of them. As she drove in the early morning light, she thought about what she would cook. She wondered if Paige would still like those omelets she used to make.

She parked her car and went up the two flights of stairs to her apartment. It was small, only room for one person, but she couldn't imagine getting another roommate. Plus, Charlotte, Becky, and Sasha were over enough they might as well be honorary roommates. As she thought of them, she made a mental note to herself to get them all together and talk. They were best friends and needed to be kept up to date on what she was doing. She didn't want them to think she was joining The Sentinels and selling out their identities.

Bayley opened the door to her apartment and stopped, her mouth dropping open in horror, all thoughts of her friends going right out the window. The window she had closed on her way out last night had been jimmied open. And her couch had been ripped into and it's contents lying on the floor everywhere. Her pictures of her Becky, Charlotte, and Sasha had been shattered. Her kitchen knives had been imbedded in the walls. Her TV had been toppled over and behind it, in gold paint, a giant star had been painted. And within it, a message, was written in red paint that she hoped wasn't blood. 'You'll Pay.'


	6. Chapter 6

Paige dressed in her Shimmer gear sat on the couch next to Bayley. Her hero teammates continued to search the Bayley's apartment. After Bayley had found her apartment trashed and her wall painted on, she had called Paige in a panic. She had only gotten out her name when Paige had grabbed her hero gear and rushed to get to Bayley's place. She had found Bayley shaking on the couch, much as she was now, with a frantic look in her eye. Paige had sat with her and held her close, running fingers through her brown hair for about ten minutes before she let Bayley know she needed to call her team about this and she had to change into her gear. Bayley had nodded, but Paige didn't think she really understood what she actually said.

Her team had gotten there about seven minutes after they called. Finn was the first to arrive, thanks to his affinity with his dark magic he could teleport or fly whenever he had the need. Bayley had told her story to Finn, already knowing to call Paige by her hero name in front of her team. When the rest of the team that was on call arrived, they quickly switched into investigation mode. Shimmer and Generico were trying to take Bayley's mind off of her ruined apartment by keeping her talking about anything else. Though Generico didn't talk, he just kind of waved his arms and Paige translated as best she could. She worked with the guy everyday, but she had to guess mostly. Finn had gone to study the marking with Goldust who looked as if he had been slapped, which Paige knew that meant his brother had done this. Roman and Claymore, the energy sword wielding man known as Drew Galloway, were going through the apartment looking for any evidence that might be important.

Paige and Generico had helped Bayley take things that were still in tact from her bedroom. Paige gazed down at a picture of Bayley with three other women. They were obviously the three that Bayley hung out with now. Paige felt happiness mixed with sadness as she saw how happy Bayley looked in the picture. These women were there for her when Paige couldn't be, and they made Bayley happy. While Paige might be jealous of that fact, she was also grateful. As if on cue from her thoughts she heard shouts from the living room. Paige ran into the room with Bayley to see an orange haired woman up in Finn's face. A magenta haired woman standing behind her standing on her tip toes to peer into the apartment.

"Move, you under grown, rat faced, little-"

"Becky!" Bayley shouted and moved towards the door quickly.

The orange haired one, Becky apparently, cut her insult off halfway through and shoved through Finn and enveloped Bayley in a hug. When Bayley hugged back she saw Becky wince, but not let go.

Bayley looked up and motioned the pink haired girl in as well. It didn't take her but a moment to sprint forward and join in the hug.

Finn walked up to Paige looking shocked. Paige smirked under her mask, "What's the matter, Balor? Orange Juice over there too much for you?"

Finn just shook his head, "I told her attacking me might bring the demon out and she laughed…"

Paige snorted and patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay, can't beat them all." When she turned her head back to the group of girls they had apparently finished their hug and Becky and the pink haired girl seemed to be fawning over Bayley who was trying to assure them that she was okay. She grabbed both of their wrists and tugged them over towards Paige. They both looked at her for a second, seemingly unimpressed. Paige liked them a bit more already. She'd had one too many people fangirl all over her. Talk about annoying.

"Guys, this is my hero friend, Shimmer. I was at her house last night, so I wasn't here for all this mess. I called her the second I knew something was up."

They both smiled politely at Paige and shook her hand. Becky's palm felt warm even to her gloved hand, and she felt a large static shock from the pink haired girl who introduced herself as Sasha. She shook it off, and nodded to them both.

"Thanks for taking care of my girl. We can't hangout much, cause I don't want anything to happen to her cause of my work. I'm glad she found you guys."

Becky smiled at the compliment, but Sasha's eyebrows had risen into her hairline. "Your girl?"

Paige blushed, thankful for her mask. Her eyes darted to Bayley, who looked scarlet as well. Had she really said that? She stuttered for a response, "Y-yeah, you know? My home girl." She looked between each of Bayley's friends. Sasha just squinted her eyes and looked between her and Bayley, while Becky seemed oblivious to the whole thing. Luckily, for Paige, Finn and Goldust came over.

"It was definitely my brother. The gold star is his signature." Goldust said sadly. "He must be upset over our father's death. I don't know why he would target you, Bayley. I'm sorry." Bayley looked at Goldust for a moment before taking his arm gently and leading him over to a corner of her apartment away from anyone else.

Paige, having heard Bayley's version of events at the crash site knew that she was telling Goldust about what happened that night and the message his father had for him. Paige looked back to Bayley's friends whom were whispering to one another. Sasha was gesturing angrily at the star, while Becky was looking concerned, but thoughtful. Paige was about to try to eavesdrop when Finn grabbed her shoulder. She turned to meet him with a raised eyebrow.

"We'll be taking this on. We need to track down Stardust and either make him see sense, or take him away from being able to hurt people."

Paige nodded, "I'll let her know we are taking care of it tonight."

He nodded over to Bayley, "This is your friend who has super strength?"

Paige sighed and nodded. "She got it from the crash. I talked to her last night and was gonna come tell you today, but I got her call first. She doesn't care about a mask or anything. What do you think?"

Finn sighed, "It's a tough call. She's a sweet kid, but you know the kind of shit we deal with on a weekly basis, Shim. She doesn't look like she can stand the sight of anything grotesque."

Paige glared at her friend, "She is stronger than anyone I know. She wears her emotions on her sleeve, but look over there. She is telling the son of a man she barely knew what he said in his final moments. While she is scared out of her wits of his psycho brother. She's taking care of others even while she is going through a crisis. If that isn't what it means to be a hero or a Sentinel, then maybe I'm on the wrong team here."

Finn looked thoughtful at her rant, used to them from their years of friend ship. "You may have a point. She's still scared of herself though. I can feel it coming off of her in waves. She'll need a teacher to help control her strength."

Paige made a dismissive hand gesture, "Like we don't have enough strong people in our little group. Roman could teach her easily, and if not him then we could call Cena out of retirement. God knows he needs something to do."

Finn chuckled, "We'll ask Roman. He's a nice guy; he should be up for it. Anything I should warn him about her?"

Paige thought for a moment, "Just to expect hugs. A lot of them."


	7. Chapter 7

It was an hour after her conversation with Finn, when a tall, beautiful blonde walked in quickly, her head snapping around to look for her friends. Bayley bounded off the couch with the gleeful cheer of: "Charlotte!" The blonde girl scooped Bayley up in a hug, wincing at her strength. Paige smiled and ignored the tiny feeling of jealousy that welled up in the pit of her stomach. Charlotte smoothed Bayley's hair out and made sure she was okay, Becky and Sasha making their way over. Paige made her way over as well, and caught the tail end of Charlotte's explanation for her lateness.

"-I was in classes when you texted. I just got it ten minutes ago and I rushed over here. Who did this?"

Paige made her presence known, noticing how Charlotte's eyes looked tired and harried. Like she hadn't gotten a good sleep for a long time. "Bayley was at a crash site where the pilot died and his son thinks she must have something to do with it. Goldust's brother actually."

Charlotte looked at Becky and Sasha who simply nodded. Charlotte relaxed a bit and nodded at Paige. Bayley introduced them officially after that and Paige shook Charlotte's hand. She did notice how fast Charlotte pulled her hand away from her, and frowned. She could feel the dislike emanating from Charlotte.

She ignored it and turned to Bayley, "Do you have your stuff, sweetheart? We can take it over to my place now, and come back for the bigger things when they are done."

Bayley nodded and meandered off with her three friends to grab her stuff, rambling on about how funny Generico was. Paige sighed and collapsed on Bayley's ripped up couch. She felt eyes on her and looked up to find Generico staring down at her through his mask. His eyes went from her to where Bayley had disappeared. Paige glared at the mute man, "Shut up, Generico."

Generico had the decency to mime zipping his lips at her.

Later that night Becky and Sasha got ready. Sasha was crackling with electricity throughout the day as she thought of what that space freak did to Bayley. If she found him tonight with Becky on patrol, she'd obliterate him.

They had a map of the city spread out on the floor. Sasha had circled a few problem areas that the vigilantes never usually attended to and they had decided to start a Birch street with the local Latin Kings gang. They were known for drug trafficking as well as drive by shootings in areas that contained opposing gang members. It led to a lot of innocent lives being lost.

Becky and her used the fire escape outside their apartment to get to their building's roof. Sasha looked at Becky as well as admiring herself. They looked good in their gear. She'd have to thank Cesaro when she went into work.

They made their way across the rooftops, keeping their ears open for anything of note. Nothing caught their attention on the way to Birch Street, but when they got there they saw several members of the Latin Kings, identifiable by their tattoos, milling about. Some were walking into the house and back out, obviously carrying drugs with them to sell.

Becky nudged her and nodded, signaling she was ready and Sasha nodded back to her. They could do this. They had their powers basically under control after practicing for hours. They could totally take on some street thugs.

They crept down and silently made their way across to the building. Sasha peered inside and saw a handful of men inside. All of them were armed and drugs were half-hazardly sitting out on tables, waiting to be cut and distributed. Sasha pulled Becky to the front door, noticing that the end of Becky's hair had caught aflame again, signaling that she was nervous. Sasha squeezed her wrist in what she hoped was reassurance, and before she could second-guess herself kicked the door in.

All the men turned toward the two women, now standing just inside the door. Becky seemed to regain her wits, "You guys order the pizza?"

The men seemed to look between them and burst out laughing. Sasha turned her head to Becky and shrugged. Becky gave her a wild grin, and lit her hand on fire. She threw it into a table full of drugs and watch as it burst into it, knocking it over and setting it ablaze.

The laughter ceased as the men looked at them with wide eyes. Sasha smirked, "Maybe the pizza is too spicy?"

Sasha could see Becky wince even behind her goggles, "That was bad. And that's coming from me."

Sasha shrugged, letting visible electricity crackle around her, the air beginning to smell of ozone, "Well, it can be something we work on."

Charlotte was running down the street as explosions and rubble fell all around her. She let her right arm morph into her purple crystal-like form and batted away some large rocks and pieces of buildings that threated to squash her. She saw her objective ahead and ran towards him. She called out his name, hoping he'd run towards her so she could use her crystal body to shield him from the destruction that was raining down on the city from above.

Reid turned towards her and smiled. He lifted his hand to wave as if the city wasn't being obliterated around them. Charlotte saw the building he was standing under shake as an explosion hit it from the battle going on in the skies between the Sentinels and an invading force. Reid looked up and in slow motion, Charlotte watched as pieces of rubble came down and covered her brother under ten feet of cinderblocks and steel. His face morphed at the last second into one of fear and horror.

She made it to the rubble too late, but began to frantically dig for him, shouting his name over and over again. She felt the tears falling down her face, as she broke through stone after stone with her crystal arms. She felt a hand on her shoulder and without thinking she whirled around and lashed out. Her crystal hand made contact and went through whoever it was like paper. She stared down at the chest that had her arm sticking through it and slowly tracked it up to the face. She let out a scream as she saw it was her father.

She sat straight up in bed with a scream. She looked down to find her entire body turned into its crystalline form. She slowly began to breath and calm down from her dream; she slowly turned her skin back to its fleshy normal state. Her hand coming up to rub her face, feeling the dry tear tracks under her fingers.

She looked at the clock and realized she had gotten about three hours of sleep. It was the best she had gotten in the last couple days since getting her powers. But it was the first time her dad had appeared in it, and she knew it was a result of having opened his office door. She put her head in her hands and thought about earlier in the day with Bayley and all the Sentinels in her apartment. She felt their eyes burning into her the whole time.

She knew she would not be getting any more sleep tonight, she slowly got off her bed and stripped hoping that a long, hot shower would calm her frayed nerves and give her clarity to think about what she should do. But she felt a cold hand grip her heart, because she knew that no matter what she decided, everything was going to change.

End of First Arc


	8. Chapter 8

Two Months Later

Becky numbly went about her business under the hood of a 2013 Honda Fit that had appeared in Baron's garage. She heard the clanks and thunks from Big Cass working on a car next to her. Her goggles were on as she tried to concentrate on what was in front of her instead of dozing off to sleep like she wanted to. She didn't register too much else, being that she was absolutely exhausted.

She and Sasha had been out kicking bad guy ass almost every night since that first one with the Latin Kings. Criminals now knew about them, and were doing more to hide their illegal activities, which in turn made them harder to locate and stop. Not only that, but she and Sasha were beginning to have disagreements about how much force to use on the bad guys. Sasha had, more than once now, refused to cut off her electricity when Becky had told her enough. It sparked big arguments for them, which Becky refused to move her position on, not wanting to kill unless absolutely necessary. Sasha would always sigh, but apologize to her and they'd move on to the best part of a fight, the making up. They usually did this with junk food and Netflix.

Becky was so wrapped up in her thoughts she hadn't heard Big Cass walk over behind her. "Hey, yo, Becky."

She jumped, hitting the back of her head on the open hood of the car. She hissed and clutched the back of her head and whirled around on her friend. "I'm gonna make you wear a damn bell."

Cass just smirked at her, "Your phone is on the table over there and it's been buzzing off the handle. Plus, it's lunch time, go get some before you keel over."

Becky watched as Cass wandered off and looked at the clock hanging above the office. It showed 12:30, indeed the usual lunchtime for her.

She put her tools away in their proper places and walked over to her phone. She had one message each from Charlotte and Sasha because they were normal people. She had ten from Bayley, who thought that each new thought was supposed to be its own text message. She smiled fondly and looked through them. Apparently Sasha and Bayley had finally convinced Charlotte to take some time off of work and have lunch.

Becky walked outside and easily hailed a taxi to take her to the café. The orange hair was really coming in handy, and she had grown used to it. It made her wander why she didn't dye it like this years ago. She told the taxi driver the address and sat back in the cab for the short trip over there.

Bayley had been having a really weird but spectacular month. She got to meet the heroes she had idolized on a daily basis, trying not to gush and look like a total fan girl was really difficult and sometimes impossible. She also was getting training on how to control her strength from Roman Reigns. He looked scary up close, but had been super nice and patient with her and she was finally making progress. Well, she could at least text enthusiastically like she used to without shattering her phone, so that was nice. She had also been living with Paige again for two months now. It was just like old times, except they spent some time at the Sentinel base during the day, that would usually be spent at work or sharing a blanket on the couch watching Paige's horrid action films.

She checked her phone again for a response from Becky, while Sasha and Charlotte talked across the table to each other. Or, rather, Sasha talked while Charlotte seemed to listen. The reason this lunch was so important, was that in the past two months Charlotte had rarely been seen by any of them. She made excuses not to hang out or come to lunch. This made the other three really worried, so Bayley had physically gone over to Charlotte's apartment and basically dragged the girl here. Charlotte had protested the whole way here, but she looked so run down and tired that she could put up much of a fight.

She looked up from her phone, with still no word from Becky, to see the Irish girl step out of a cab and wave at them. She looked tired too, but the good kind of tired you get after working out or something. Bayley wasn't stupid. She knew what Sasha and Becky were doing at night. The Sentinels tried to monitor vigilante activity, but usually let it slide if they weren't racking up a body count. She was proud that her girls weren't going down that dark road, unlike CM Punk who was still on the Sentinels wanted list. She refused to tell anyone, even Paige, that the other three girls were at the crash site with her and had gotten powers. She loved them, and would protect their identities until she was told otherwise.

Becky plopped down in the empty seat between Charlotte and Sasha. She smiled at everyone, getting a smile form Bayley and Sasha, while Charlotte did the best she could to show one. She turned to Bayley, "Tell us all about it! Is it really cool seeing all those guys?"

Bayley grinned, "So cool. I'm pretty sure I embarrass myself in front of them by being so awestruck. Shimmer gives me crap about it at home all the time."

Sasha rolled her eyes, "I can't believe you live with a superhero. Or that you lived with her before."

Bayley shrugged, "She wasn't a superhero when I met her. I wish I could introduce you guys for real. She'd like you."

Becky smiled at her encouragingly, before fighting off a yawn. Bayley smirked, "And if we are talking about how we spend our nights…"

Becky blushed and gave an apologetic glance to Sasha. Sasha turned to Bayley smiling proudly, "It's so exhausting, but we are making a difference. We've cleared entire blocks of drugs and gangbangers."

Becky smiled and nodded, "Yeah, we are being mentioned up there with Ambrose and Willow. In fact, did you see that little blurb online that Ambrose sent in about us?"

Sasha frowned, "No, you know I don't keep up to date on that."

Becky rolled her eyes; "He said he was impressed with what we had done in so short a time. Even gave me a name I think I might use…"

Sasha rolled her eyes, "Becky, you've been through like twenty five names in the last few months. It's time to just pick one."

Bayley giggled as Becky sent a challenging glare at Sasha, "Ambrose called me a spitfire. I think I like that as my name. Spitfire."

Sasha shrugged, "It's not terrible. Better than the first one you came up with."

Bayley raised her eyebrows at them when Becky turned scarlet. She whacked Sasha, who was laughing, on the arm. "You promised you'd never mention that again!"

Sasha turned to Bayley, "Oh you'll love this Bayley. The first name she chose was…Oh shit." Sasha's eyes were trained on something behind Bayley. Bayley frowned and turned to look over her shoulder. It was a television in the café that had a breaking news report from the other side of the city. It showed rocks and debris everywhere, a figure standing in the middle of it. She would know that figure anywhere, especially after the stories that Paige told her about how he and Generico were once best friends on the Sentinels. It was Kevin Owens. He had the power to manipulate earth and was using that to try to bat away some of the Sentinels who were engaging him on the street.

She looked back, scared. Paige would be out there right now. She and Bayley had never been so close as they had the past two months. Paige had seemed to relaxed and happy to have her back and not have to worry about her safety as much. Sasha put her hand on Bayley's shoulder and Becky reached across to hold Bayley's hand. Charlotte hadn't even turned to look at the television, but gave Bayley a weak smile. Bayley felt their strength be added to her own and she smiled at them.

She turned back to watch Generico use the water from a fire hydrant to send Owens into the side of the building. Then she saw Finn levitate up and chant something in a language no one else could understand and Owens was bound in black energy. He fought and spit at them, but he could not get free. Finn held him off the ground so he wasn't connected to the source of his power. Bayley held her breath as Finn took him away. She sighed in relief when the camera panned over to show Shimmer with the rest of the team. Sasha and Becky retracted their hands and Charlotte looked back down into her coffee.

Bayley frowned at Charlotte, and made it a point to ask her questions for the rest of the lunch. Becky and Sasha joined in, and they finally got Charlotte talking a bit. She told them she had been having nightmares about her brother again, and that she was just feeling down about the divorce still. Bayley frowned, Charlotte had gone through the divorce with enough grace at the time that it was a little strange it would be bugging her now. But Bayley had never been through a divorce, let alone to a wild bearded man like Bram. Maybe this was how Charlotte's emotions were dealing with the divorce now.

"Well," Becky said, "maybe you need to go out on a date. Let your hair down and let loose a bit. I could set you up with my boss."

Charlotte raised an eyebrow, "You want to set me up with Baron?"

Becky shrugged, "Why not? He's tall, brooding, kind of an ass and has his own business." She took a sip of her water looking Sasha for assistance.

Sasha scoffed, "Come on, Baron is a total ass. You just like him cause he pays you and tolerates you." Becky shrugged, "I think you should go on a date with Cesaro from my work. He's nice, foreign-"

"You should date Roman!" Bayley cut in.

Charlotte, who looked like she had been entertaining the idea of going on a date, immediately shut down. "Absolutely not."

Bayley pouted, "Come on, he's super in shape with the long hair and a tattoo, he's right up your alley."

Charlotte just shook her head, and stared down at her coffee. Bayley shared a look with Becky and Sasha.

"Okay, so maybe no date," said Sasha, "But you should come out with me and Becky one time. It'll let you work off some steam. You should too, Bayley."

Becky nodded excitedly, "Yeah, then we could be a team of four!"

Bayley bit her lip, "I don't know guys. The Sentinels are pretty strict about the vigilante thing."

Charlotte jumped on the opening, "Well I won't go if Bayley can't go."

Bayley sighed, "But if it gets Charlotte out of her funk, I'll go." She watched Charlotte drop her head into her hands. "But it can only be one time. I'll get in trouble if I do this thing with you guys and get caught. I really wanna join this team."

Sasha smiled at her, "Yeah, that's fine. How about we make a day out of it. We can take this weekend off and go shopping," Becky groaned, "watch some movies, and then when it gets dark enough we can go out and kick ass."

Bayley smiles and nods while Becky pumps her fist in the air at the prospect of all being together. Charlotte mumbles that she will be there before excusing herself out the door towards her car.

The three remaining girls all look at each other. Becky speaks up, "Something is very wrong, and if this weekend doesn't cure it we need to think of something that will."

Bayley nods and watches Charlotte pull away from the curb. Charlotte was their friend. They'd do anything they could to help her.


	9. Chapter 9

Paige walked through the halls of the base quickly. She, Generico, and Finn were needed to go on a mission happening on the coast. It wasn't necessarily an emergency, but it wasn't something she could take her sweet time with. She needed to find Bayley on the base so she could tell her she was leaving. It wasn't something she had to do, she knew Bayley would be okay training with Roman, but at the same time she always told Bayley what she was doing so her friend wouldn't worry. Bayley and her had a system. Bayley would always be the one to put on Paige's mask to wish her good luck. It was their thing, and Paige couldn't leave without it.

She located the proper training room and opened the door to see Roman leaning against the wall observing Bayley who had just threw a practice dummy through a brick wall. Paige watched her silently for a few moments. She was getting really good. Her agility was really good for someone only practicing for two months. Her strength was scary good, as it had been. She had a great handle on it now, if you asked Paige. She'd insisted Bayley hug her a week ago and had been pleasantly surprised when her spine didn't crack.

Paige walked over to Roman who was watching in stony silence. He flicked his eyes over to her and nodded. "Shimmer."

"Roman. How's she doing?"

"She's doing well. Making leaps and bounds in the training. She won't be ready for a real life and death mission yet, but she's getting there."

Paige nodded, "Mind if I borrow her for a minute?"

Roman sighed and nodded, "She's earned it. She's been working all morning."

"Stop looking so put upon, Superman. Makes you look more gloomy than usual." Paige teased. She was satisfied by a small Roman grin, but it was gone too soon.

"Fuck off, Shimmer. Just take your girl and do what you need to do."

Paige knew Roman didn't mean anything by that statement, but the way he said 'your girl' made Paige flinch. She had come out as bisexual in college, Bayley was the first person to find out, actually. She'd been nothing but supportive and sweet about it. Paige had appreciated it; especially back in college when coming out had been a big deal to her.

It was after college that Paige recognized she and Bayley acted a little different from normal friends. She had always known Bayley was gorgeous and appealed to her, but she'd always dismissed the thought because it washer best friend, her confidante, her Bayley. But when she gained powers on top of coming out about her sexuality and had begun to hero at nights, she'd become increasingly worried about Bayley's safety at their apartment. She'd sometimes double back three times a night before she allowed herself into the apartment, just to be safe. When she'd joined the Sentinels she couldn't keep it up, she had to ask Bayley to move out so she'd be safe. As an added benefit to that, she felt the crush she had for her best friend ebb after she stopped seeing her every day. It would flare sometimes when she sat in an empty apartment and something would remind her of Bayley or it would flare when they had their weekly lunches or a night out together on the rare occasion that Paige was free for a night. But life without the crush hanging over her had been almost as much of a blissful torture as life had been with it.

But with Bayley having powers and able to defend herself now, as well as her joining the team, and moving back in with Paige, the little crush had flared to an extent it never had before. Everything Bayley did at home seemed to make the fire stronger. It annoyed Paige, but she'd never been so happy. It was a weird feeling to be annoyed at one's own feelings, but loving the cause of the feelings. But even her teammates were beginning to see that the relationship between her and Bayley was a little more than it seemed. According to Finn, everyone could see that Paige loved Bayley except Bayley herself. She'd even had long talks with Generico, which was impressive considering he either couldn't or wouldn't talk.

"Bayley!" She saw her friend jump and squeeze a practice dummy too hard, its head popping off and rolling over to Roman's feet. He sighed and picked it up, giving Paige an annoyed look. Paige ignored him and waved Bayley over. When she got there she said she was sorry to Roman over and over again. Paige rolled her eyes and pulled the girl out into the hallway.

"So why'd you pull me out of training? Roman looked annoyed."

Paige chuckled, "That's just his normal face. Anyway, I've been called out for a mission on the coast. I wanted to tell you so you didn't worry. I'll probably be home way after dinner if you wanted to save me leftovers."

Bayley smiled, "Is that code for, 'Bayley, please leave me some leftovers?'

Paige shrugged sheepishly and smiled under her mask, "Yeah, pretty much."

Bayley giggled and Paige was struck again by how absolutely lucky she was to have Bayley in her life. Not even a painful crush would make her ruin this friendship. Her life without Bayley would be…awful. Bayley probably didn't even feel the same way about her. She'd never given any sign of liking girls at all.

Bayley reached up and took off Paige's mask. She didn't even need to be asked to do their little ritual before a mission she just did it. Paige was thankful because she didn't know if she could ask for something like this.

She smiled, looking at Paige's unmasked face. She slowly and delicately draped the mask back over Paige's lower face. She cupped the sides of Paige's face and Paige unknowingly leaned into the touch. "Be safe out there, okay? Kick some ass too, Shimmer."

Paige felt her heart jump and her gut twist painfully. She didn't know what it was about this specific time, but she'd never felt her heart do that during this. It was painfully pleasant. This crush was getting out of hand; she'd need to think of something. She gulped before she responded, "I will. You keep working hard okay, B?"

She grinned at her, and Paige felt her heart jump again at the pureness of it. "I will. I'll be out there with you soon enough!" She turned and opened the door, closing it before Paige heard her yell something enthusiastic at Roman, who was probably grumbling about it. She really needed to do something about this. She put a hand to her forehead and waited for her heart to return to normal. She turned right into Generico who was leaning against the wall, smirking under his mask. She glared at him sternly. "Shut up, Generico."

Generico mimed zipping his lips, making Paige growl and storm off to get on the jumpship.

Becky ducked behind a pile of crates in the warehouse her and Sasha were attacking. Bullets ricocheted off the boxes and she grinned over at Sasha. The pink haired girl was on the other side of warehouse, still in Becky's view. This was the third warehouse they had hit in as many days. These human traffickers had been taking homeless people and impoverished kids off the streets. Becky and Sasha didn't take to kindly to that, so they had freed the innocents they had come across and beaten the shit out of the people running the operation. They'd left them tied up outside the police station, and the news was even running stories on them as the newest batch of vigilantes. Some news channels were sympathetic and supportive, but most were vindictive and speculated nasty things about her and Sasha. They both appreciated the news channels that gave kind words, but the only thanks they needed was to see people who were being hurt or bullied become safe and better off than they had been.

Becky peeked out from cover and hurled a fireball into the chest of a gunman that had gotten to close to her cover. It blew him back and he fell to the floor with a grunt. She shouted over at Sasha, deciding to carry on their conversation from before they had launched their raid. "So, you don't want to bring them on a raid like this?"

She watched Sasha stand up and shoot and arc of lightning, taking out three men who were still looking Becky's way. They slammed into the wall and drifted off for a little unexpected nap. Sasha knew that the 'them' Becky referred to were Charlotte and Bayley. They couldn't say names for obvious reasons. "Well, yeah. We can't do anything huge. We know how to work together, but neither of them knows how to work with a team, or have been in high-pressure stakes before. We should just do some easy stuff and take down some dealers and muggers."

Becky huffed. She had looked forward to kicking ass and taking names with Charlotte and Bayley, but she'd have to settle for some less exciting stuff. "I guess you're right." She peeled around the corner at a run and threw a flame-covered fist into the jaw of a thug who'd gotten to close. She spun and sent a wave of flame out that caused all the remaining men to scramble back right into the path of a pink colored lightning bolt that shocked them into unconsciousness. Becky was about to relax when she saw the lightning bolt continue. She snapped her head to Sasha who looked murderous. Becky ran to her and shoved her into the side of the boxes. It interrupted her concentration and the men finally slumped to the floor. They didn't look good, but Becky could see them breathing. "What the hell!"

"You tell me! These guys were trafficking kids. They deserve it!" Sasha got right in her face.

Becky growled, "How many times do I have to say it? It's not for us to decide who lives and who dies! I know I don't want to have the responsibility of deciding whether someone lives or dies. Only as a last resort, that was our deal."

Sasha clenched her jaw, "Well I don't like the deal!" She turned her back to Becky and marched out, seething.

Becky put her hand to her forehead and sighed. Another fight. Great. They'd been getting more frequent and it was becoming a serious problem. They always made up once the adrenaline wore off, so that's what Becky had always related it to. Now she had to tie all these guys up by herself and call the police with the location of the warehouse before disappearing herself. She turned to go find some rope, but came face to face with the man she had punched. He was five feet away with a gun pointed right at her face. Becky didn't even have time to move, when a shadow pushed past her quickly, right before she heard the sound of a single gunshot. She jumped and stumbled back as a leather-clad jacket had appeared in front of her. She saw the thug with the gun crumple to the ground, knocked out.

Someone had just taken a bullet for her, literally. She couldn't make her body function, as her heart was still in her throat. She watched the mysterious man slowly turn around. She expected to see a blood soaked chest and a pale face of a person losing blood too quickly, but was surprised with messy brown hair; a scruffy well chiseled jaw, and light grey eyes. It took her a moment to recognize him, but she'd know that face anywhere. It was the one they showed on the news all the time. Dean Ambrose.

He looked down at her, still looking up at him from her spot on the ground, before looking down at himself. A small bullet hole was in his white wife beater, but the skin didn't even looked brused. He picked at the hole and sighed. "Damn, I liked this shirt."


	10. Chapter 10

"So are you just gonna stare at me or at you gonna get up off the ground. There's no telling what's been through here." Dean offered a hand to her. She took it unsurely, but when his grip tightened she hauled herself up with his help.

She stared at him through her dark goggles. He looked around at the destruction that her and Sasha caused and chuckled. "Nicely done. Sorry about your partner. I caught the tail end of that fight."

Becky adjusted her bandana and ran a hand through her fiery hair, "Yeah, well it's just the adrenaline. She'll come around and apologize later."

He hummed he bent down to search the thug that had almost ended Becky's life. He pulled out the man's cellphone and called 911 using the emergency call function. He winked at her while he waited to be answered. She took that moment to study him further.

He was wearing a white wife beater under a dark leather jacket. The bullet hole was very visible on his chest, but the skin that peeked through looked completely untouched. He wore dark wash jeans and his face was uncovered save for his shaggy brown bangs that ran into his eyes. She heard him murmuring to the police the location of the warehouse and what they'd find there. He threw the phone on the ground and turned back to her fully.

"So you're Spitfire." He examined her and nodded, "I like the gear. Very cool, the goggles especially. Glad that you used the name that I gave you in my interview, makes me fanboy a tiny bit." He had a boyish grin peeking out and Becky couldn't help but smile back.

She let out an incredulous chuckle, "You a fanboy of me? You're the legendary vigilante here. Dean Ambrose, the indestructible man."

"I'm guessing that means you're a fan of me? I appreciate it, but I wasn't lying before. I like how you operate." He said walking closer to her, "But you just had a fight with your partner, sounds like you need a drink. Come on, my bar isn't that far from here. I can pick your brain a bit while we're there."

Becky's brain short-circuited, "You have a bar? You're a famous vigilante, and you have a bar?"

Dean shrugged, "I know how to pull strings to make sure it stays off the record. My face and name might be famous, but I can own a bar and hang out in it. All my regulars don't care and won't squeal about it. They won't even look twice at you coming in most likely."

Becky scoffed, "What makes you think I want to come to your bar in the first place? I had a fight with my partner, like you said, maybe I wanna go home and wait for her to get over herself."

"You're Irish so I figured you could use a drink."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "That's a stereotype." He raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed, "A true stereotype. Fine, let's go."

He held open the warehouse doors for her and she went through first. She let him lead her on a leisurely pace through some alleys before they got to a cross section. On the right there was s dimly lit sign that read: 'Cactus Jack's'. It flickered on and off in a warm red glow and Dean without waiting for her to admire the outside of the building was opening to door for her into the bar. She stepped through and looked around. It was dimly lit, but still had enough light that she could see through her tinted goggles. There were several middle-aged men sitting quietly in booths with a beer sat in front of them. They turned to look and some waved at Dean, but they didn't think it too weird that a fiery orange-haired girl with goggles and a bandana over her face was standing next to him. They were either really drunk, or Dean was right and this was just a chill dive bar.

He led her towards the bar, past several pictures of what looked like a younger Dean next to a hunched over and portly man. The older man had a beard in the photo and was grinning next to Dean who looked more relaxed than she had yet seen him. The old man had long hair and a wild grin. He had a couple missing teeth in his grin, but looked incredibly happy in his red and black flannel. There were several other decorations on the wall, but they all centered on that picture as well as one right next to it. It showed the same older man with a slightly younger Dean and a blonde woman who had her arms around both of them, smiling happily into the camera. She stowed away those people's faces for later, in case they came up, and moved with him towards the bar.

He pointed to a stool that she graciously took and sat on, after flipping the tail of her coat back so it wouldn't get caught under her. She looked behind the bar and was met with a smiling bearded man. He was around her age and had reddish short hair. Dean sat next to her and grunted. "Spitfire, meet Sami Zayn. My bartender."

She titled her head and reached a hand out to shake with the man. He took her hand before reaching for a glass on the bar, "What can I get you?"

Before she could say anything Dean interrupted, "I'll have my usual. She'll have a Guinness." Becky snapped her head over to him and glared. He must have been able to sense her anger as he held up his hands, "Too far?"

She didn't answer him and his Irish jokes, she simply turned to Sami to answer, "I'll have a Jack and Coke." Sami nodded before turning around and beginning to make their drinks. She turned to Dean who was staring at her with a tilted head and a pondering look. "No more Irish jokes?"

"Why are you doing this?"

She blinked, "Doing what?"

He leaned forward taking the drink that Sami had set down in front of him and cradling it in his hands, "Being a hero, or vigilante, or whatever they want to call it?"

Becky actually blanked at this. She hadn't really considered a reason for her doing this. She pulled her bandana down so she could drink from the glass set in front of her. She watched Sami move off to help other patrons as she pondered her answer. "I guess just the fact that I have an ability now, and to not use it to help people would be the same as committing the crime myself. Making the best out of the situation I found myself in."

She watched Dean nod, "Good. I was hoping your answer wasn't gonna be cause you like burning things or something stupid."

She chuckled, "It took me a couple days to even get it under control. I burned through several of my favorite shirts before I got a grip on it."

Dean laughed, "That's hilarious."

She took another sip of her drink, letting the pleasant burning sensation trickle down her throat. "Why did you take a bullet for me? I mean I get that bullets can't hurt you with the impenetrable skin and indestructability, but why do you even care?"

Dean sighed, "I care because I want to help people too. I care cause you and me have a similar goal. I care because I've seen what you are going through before and it doesn't always turn out pretty."

Becky furrowed her brow, "What do you mean? Fire powers?"

He shook his head, "No, you and your partner."

She tensed at the mention of Sasha, whom she was still angry at. "What about her?"

"I used to have partners. Two of them. It didn't end pretty for us, and the same warning signs are starting to show in her."

Becky remembered when Dean used to run around with two partners. They had been all over the news. The Shield. She knew one of them ended up joining the Sentinels. The other one had disappeared, and Dean had apparently opened or taken over this bar, and been dealing out street justice by himself.

"She cares about me. She wouldn't do that. She'll come around."

Dean sighed and glanced at her from over the rim of his glass, "I hope so, but you need to be prepared if she doesn't. You want to keep everything good by not killing unless it's a last resort. I respect that, but some people aren't like us, and they don't see that there's a line. Even within the line of black and white, where it's gray, there is a line. And to cross it means that you becomes shades and shades darker until you're almost as dark as the people you're trying to stop."

Becky felt chilled at his words and shivered. She gulped down the rest of her drink. "She'll see reason. She has to."

Dean patted her on the shoulder, saying nothing, waving his hand at Sami for some refills. He let the silence linger for a moment as Sami made their drinks again. "Stay as long as you like, Spitfire. When you're ready to go home, I'll walk you. After that, you're welcome back here anytime."

She nodded slowly, still thinking about what he said. He gave her one more pat on the back, "Drinks are on the house. Us heroes gotta stick together."

Sasha was still fuming. Those guys had crossed the line by trafficking children, and Becky thought they deserved mercy? Everyone on earth would agree with her actions. Those bastards deserved to suffer a bit for their actions. They wouldn't suffer enough in jail so Sasha was going to take the liberty herself. She had been walking through alleys for a half and hour now. She was tired, sore, and thirsty. She had already changed back into her spare street clothes in her duffle bag carrying it over her shoulder. It had Becky's spare clothes in it too so hopefully Becky wasn't angrier with her for taking it with her when she left. She'd been so angry, the blood had rushed in her ears and all she could see was red. She'd sprinted out of there and not looked back.

Now she finally came out of her alley stroll and decided to find a store that was still open. A store that would have some water for her. She passed by several darkened storefronts, before seeing one with a blinking open sign. It was a tattoo parlor. The sign read: Straight Edge Society Tattoos. She looked through the window and saw a small cooler sat by the front desk. It was filled with energy drinks, water, and soda. Not seeing any other store on the street she walked in, causing the bell to jingle. She went and crouched down by the cooler, letting her duffle bag fall beside her. She was so busy trying to pick a drink she didn't notice the man walk into the room.

"Well you aren't the usual drunks we get this time of night that get regrettable tattoos."

She jumped and whirled around. She came face to face with a heavily tattooed man. He had a lip ring and slicked back hair. He grinned at her, his tight T-shirt fitting pleasantly around his frame. His dark washed jeans sagged slightly and he gave her a small grin. "I'm Phil. What can I do for you?"

She gave him an apologetic smile, "Sasha. Sorry, no tattoos. I just wanted a water."

He chuckled, "No problem. I'm sure the dollar you spend will pay my electric bill."

Sasha glared at the man, but couldn't help the smile that ticked on her face. "If it makes you feel better, I'll pay two dollars for the water."

"It's like Christmas," he said dryly. He walked to the register and she handed him the two dollars. She took the water and took a big drink of it. She sighed and he leaned against the resister. "You look like you had a rough night."

She panicked for a quick second, hoping she didn't have any evidence on her that would point him to her being a vigilante. "You just look like you have something you're avoiding. Why else would you be out at this time of night, alone with a duffle bag? My first guess was a boyfriend fight, but you look like you'd be the one to do the kicking out. So if it's not that, then what is it?"

She sighed, giving him a small glare, "Why do you care? You get a lot of people spilling their guts to you?"

He looked heavily amused by her choice of words, "You'd be surprised."

She ran a hand through her hair. If she was going to tell anyone, it might as well be a stranger. "Me and my roommate got in a fight. We've been having them more frequently, and I just get so mad at her for not seeing things my way."

He hummed, "Well, first off you probably did the right thing by taking some time away from her. Gives you both a chance to cool down and approach it with a clearer head. Now, what was the fight about?"

Sasha scrambled for something that would explain their disagreement without incriminating her. "Well… so we want to buy our friend a gift each for her birthday. Thing is, my job pays more and I want to spend a lot on a gift that my friend really wants, but my roommate wants us to settle for a gift of equal worth. I agreed, but now I'm constantly mad at her cause I don't feel I did all I could do."

He eyed her suspiciously before sighing, "Well, personally, I agree with you. If you wanna do something nice for your friend you shouldn't hold back. But have you thought about it from her point of view? You have your own background that makes you who you are, but she doesn't have the same experience so of course she isn't gonna see things the exact same way. She's probably self conscious about how much she makes and is trying to do all she can for her friend too, but feels less because of what you can afford."

Sasha nodded. It made sense now that she thought about it. She hummed, "So what should I do?"

"Well first," He started, his eyes still staring holes into her, "If you said anything you regret, apologize. After that you have three options. You can be the bigger woman and lower yourself to your friend's level to save your friendship, you can try to sit down and explain your thinking to her, or you can do what you know is right and hope she comes around."

Sasha sighed, all those options sounded less than ideal. Talking her feelings out wasn't her strong suit, but he'd given her a starting place, so she was at least thankful for that. "I'll have to think about it. I'll definitely apologize though. I just kind of yelled and ran out. Ugh, I hate drama."

Phil grinned, "Drama ain't so bad. The wife and I live on it. Keeps things interesting. I wouldn't be as invested in her if she didn't threaten to stab me a few times."

Sasha looked him over, "You're insane." He shrugged good-naturedly. "But, you're good at listening to random strangers. I might buy an overpriced water from you again."

"I look forward to all the food you'll put on my table with that, Sasha. Now beat it, I'm closing up." He shooed her out, with her duffle bag and closed the door behind her.

She smiled. Maybe Phil wouldn't be just a stranger for much longer.


	11. Chapter 11

Paige was still on edge. She'd come back from the emergency on the coast and had walked into her and Bayley's apartment to a home cooked meal and her favorite movie on. One she knew that Bayley didn't like all too much. She had thanked Bayley for the meal and had watched the movie without really paying attention. There were two reasons for that. Number one was that she was still thinking about earlier and how deep her crush on her best friend was becoming. It wasn't something that she could brush off as a passing thing anymore, it was as real as any other crush she had ever had, the only caveat was that it was her best friend. Number two was that Bayley was pressed into her side comfortably and resting her head on Paige's shoulder.

Paige wasn't going to lie and say she wasn't comfortable with her current position. Having your crush cuddle up to you was every person's dream. But when that crush didn't know you liked them and they happened to be your best friend and roommate, that made things a little complicated. An itch had started in Paige's skin. It had been buzzing since Bayley had placed her Shimmer mask across her face earlier that day. She had been distracted and distant from her teammates on the mission because she was thinking of how she could avoid these feelings that this girl evoked in her. And the itch was becoming one she had to scratch the longer she let Bayley lean against her. She felt herself getting angry with herself for having these feelings that could completely wreck her best friendship, at Bayley for bringing this up in her, and every single thing that the girl did only increased it. Paige had been struggling on how to deal with it, but she could feel the anger taking over any rational thought.

"So I'm going out shopping with Becky, Charlotte, and Sasha tomorrow and then we are gonna have a girl's night together since I've been so busy training. I know you have a day off tomorrow so I wanted to let you know why I won't be around."

Paige felt her jaw tick, "That's fine. I was thinking about taking an extra day and suiting up anyway."

Bayley pulled her head off of Paige's shoulder to look at her. Paige felt saddened at the loss of contact, but then felt the rush of anger at herself for feeling that way. She's your best friend Paige, this can't happen. Bayley looked at her confused, "You needed a day off. You've been working so hard."

"I'm fine. I want to go in." She knew she was being short, but couldn't bring herself to let go of the anger.

Bayley sat all the way up and turned to her, "Paige, you need to relax and take a day off."

Paige glared at her, "I'm fine. I want to go into work, so I'm going into work. Drop it, Bayley."

In true Bayley fashion, she did not drop it, "Why are you being so defensive about it? I'm just worried."

Paige felt something click in her mind and she snapped her head to look at Bayley. "Well stop it! I don't need you to worry about me! You haven't even been a hero that long, what would you know about responsibility?"

Paige could see Bayley's face; she looked like she'd been slapped. Paige couldn't bring herself to stop. "You bounce around everywhere with this smile and carefree attitude being nice to people everywhere and think that's enough to make it as a hero. Sometimes life isn't sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes life is dark and gritty and unfair. But you don't get that because your just Bayley and you know better than to be tainted by the dark side of the world. Well some of us don't get that luxury!"

Paige was now standing over Bayley who looked back at her wide-eyed. She opened her mouth to respond, but she couldn't get a word out. Paige was glaring at her, not just because she was pissed off, but because she was also trying to hold back tears. How dare Bayley trounce around her life, making Paige care for her, making Paige love her, and without receiving any drawbacks in her life. She didn't know what it was like to want something and never get it with someone else being the cause, and she never would because she had to be so damn oblivious.

"I… I just wanted to be like y-you." Bayley finally stuttered out. Paige folded her arms and glared harder, fighting the angry tears in her eyes.

"You never will. You don't go through what I go through every single day. You don't have to deal with yourself being so perfect all the time. You might make it on to the Sentinels but you'll always be the perfect girl no one can relate to." Paige whirled herself around, not being able to look at Bayley's tear filled eyes and stomped towards her bedroom. Paige had done the only thing she could think of to scratch the itch. She had ruined it with anger and spite instead of waiting for her crush, her love for her, to destroy not only her friendship with Bayley, but also herself. Right before she went through the threshold of her room, she called over her shoulder. "Stop worrying about me Bayley. I don't need it." And when she slammed the door and pressed her back against it, finally letting the angry tears fall, she knew that out of everything she had said and thought about Bayley worrying about her, the truth really was she didn't deserve it in the first place.

Becky walked beside Dean as he walked her back to her apartment. She was in a large T-shirt of his and some athletic shorts he had let her borrow, her gear tucked into a duffle bag he had also loaned her. She was only slightly tipsy, enough to have quieted her anger at Sasha down. Dean had in fact insisted, no matter how not drunk she was, that he walk her home. She had eventually caved, said goodbye to Sami and changed behind a dumpster, leaving her goggles on for some semblance of a secret identity, while Dean guarded the way out of the alley. She was one classy chick.

As they came towards her and Sasha's apartment she looked up to see their light on. That meant that Sasha was home. She thanked Dean who threw her a small wave and a reassurance that she was always welcomed back to Cactus Jack's and went on his way. Becky had climbed the stairs carefully, hoping she would tip over the side in her buzzed state. She got to the door and knocked, her key being in the bag that Sasha had taken.

The door flung open and Sasha was there, looking at her worriedly. She ran forward and hugged Becky who had a slower reaction time, but hugged back. Sasha was in her pajamas and had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She finally stepped back from Becky. "Are you okay, I've been worried."

Becky smiled, "Yeah, I went and got a drink. We needed some time to cool off."

Sasha wrinkled her nose, "Is that why you smell like a dumpster bathed in alcohol?"

Becky chuckled, walking in and closing the door behind her. "It's a long story."

Sasha looked down at her friend, in an overly large T-shirt and boy's athletic shorts. She gave her a curious look. Becky shrugged, "I made a friend. I'll have to tell you about him when we don't have some talking to do."

Sasha had her follow Becky over to the couch and they both sat down. "Listen, Bex. First of all I'm sorry that I yelled at you. I kind of acted like a bitch. I know you think I'm some crazy person who wants to have all this power over life and death, and I know I agreed to that no killing rule, but sometimes it's hard. With my dad and how his killers were never caught, I just… lose it sometimes. I feel I could be doing more. I'm not asking you to personally compromise your beliefs or anything, but I want you to understand where I'm coming from."

Becky pushed her hair back and sighed, "I don't think you're crazy. And believe it or not, I can at least somewhat understand the wanting to do more, but I can't go any farther unless absolutely necessary." Sasha looked like she was about to argue, but Becky held up her hand and Sasha's mouth closed. "And I'm trying to understand, but I don't think anyone can empathize completely with you because they haven't gone through the same struggle you have." Becky grabbed Sasha's hands between her own. "All we can try for between us is to try to understand. I'd like to say I can meet you half way on this, but I can't."

Sasha bowed her head in disappointment. But she quickly looked back into Becky's eyes with solemn understanding. When she had her attention back, Becky continued, "All four of us got these powers. So I pictured all four of us saving the day, being the good guys. But, Charlotte seems terrified of herself, and Bayley has gone off to join the government mandated superhero team. But you shared my vision of helping people, and I look forward to coming home everyday and going out and doing that with you, because you are my best friend and I love you. But I can't bring myself to kill, and if that means we have to stop doing this because we can't agree and to save our friendship, then that's what we'll do."

"You'd give up this dream for us to stop arguing?" Sasha looked somewhere between touched and shocked.

"Without a second thought." Becky pulled Sasha close, "You are more important to me than that."

Sasha gulped, "I-We can make this work. I can't stop making a difference. It's all I've ever wanted to." She looked at Becky with gritted teeth. "I can tone down. Or at least try. And if it gets out of hand I'll trust you to bring me back from that."

Becky beamed at her friend, her tipsiness helping her smile easily and become increasingly pleased with what Sasha was saying. "Yes! Fire and Lightning back together again!"

Sasha rolled her eyes, "You're such a dork. Now come on, we need to sleep. We hang out with the girls tomorrow and have shopping to do and butt to kick that night."

Becky hugged Sasha one more time before getting up and stumbling to her room. If she had been less tipsy and more attentive she would have seen Sasha bite her lip and look down. She would have seen the complete look of fear, uncertainty, and dread, coat her friend's features. But to Becky, she could only see a nice warm bed and a great day tomorrow with all her friends together.


	12. Chapter 12

Bayley felt like lead. Ever since Paige had yelled at her last night, she hadn't been able to stop thinking about the hurtful words. She hadn't been able to sleep, and to top it off, it was right before the day that she would be shopping with Charlotte, Becky, and Sasha and staying out all night being heroes. She was exhausted and still felt every piercing sting of Paige's words. She was making coffee, like she did every morning and had still gotten Paige's mug out and prepared her a cup. Bayley wasn't sure what she had done last night that caused Paige to snap at her, but she planned on trying to apologize this morning with a cup of coffee.

She heard Paige's door open and looked over, expecting to see Paige with smudged make up, dried drool, and a rats nest on her head like every morning. She loved seeing Paige like that. She seemed so naturally beautiful. Bayley always thought she was, but it always really struck her in those moments. She was surprised when Paige came out fully dressed, with ironed straight hair, make up perfectly applied and in her Shimmer gear.

It threw Bayley for such a loop that she missed the point in which Paige arrived in the kitchen. Paige turned her back to her and silently gathered a breakfast bar, completely ignoring Bayley. They'd never fought like this before. Sure they got on each other's nerves before, but Paige had never yelled at her like that, and it certainly hadn't lasted into the morning. Bayley figured she might have to make the first move on this apology. "Paige, I don't know what I did to make you so angry at me, but I'm sorry."

Paige only paused for a second before continuing to unwrap her breakfast bar and biting into it. Her back was still to Bayley and she said nothing. Bayley furrowed her brow and tried again. "Paige, I'm sorry. Please tell me what I did."

Paige remained silent, her head down. She walked right by the coffee that Bayley had made for her, not even touching it. Paige loved her coffee and her not even sparing it a glance was a huge red flag, as if everything else wasn't. "Paige, take your coffee."

"Don't want it." Finally she spoke and Bayley felt a little bit of relief, but it instantly vanished when the words actually registered. She balked at the thought of Paige not wanting her coffee.

"Paige, what is going on?"

"Just go with your friends, Bayley."

Bayley frowned, "Not until we figure this out."

Paige finally whirled around on her, but Bayley wasn't surprised like she had been last night. She was ready for this. "There's nothing to figure out. I'm leaving to go to the base, you have plans."

Her tone left no room for argument, but Bayley wasn't done. "I want to know why you are angry at me. I want a promise we will figure this out and you won't just avoid me. We are best friends, we can't be like this."

Paige flinched visibly at her last sentence, which made her more confused. "I can't make that promise, Bayley."

"Please, Paige?" She didn't mind begging. Paige was important to her, so she'd beg on her knees any day to fix whatever this was.

Paige looked conflicted and visibly gulped, before she reluctantly nodded. "I just need to get advice from someone. We can talk tomorrow after you get home from your girls night. But I don't wanna talk to you right now."

Bayley felt the conflicting sting of her last words along with the relief of her assurance on a conversation later. "It's the best I'm going to get, isn't it?"

Paige simply nodded, causing Bayley to sigh. "Alright. But if you are going to the base, let me put your mask on."

She pushed off the counter to walk over to Paige, but Paige's eyes had widened and she had backed against the wall by the window. "NO!"

Bayley stopped wide-eyed. No matter what, Paige and her always did this ritual. Bayley needed this. It was her way of making sure Paige stayed safe in the field. "Paige, please. This is for me, I need to do it."

Paige shook her head quickly, and put the mask on herself. She quickly pulled energy from the room, the television flickering off and the microwave beeped in protest, but she used it to quickly fly from their apartment.

Bayley felt the first tear slide down her face. Paige hated her. That was the only thing she could think of that would cause her to act like this. The worst part was that Bayley didn't even know why. She sank to the floor, the tears coming easily now that the first one had broken the seal.

She didn't know how long she sat there with her knees pulled up to her chest. But she knew she needed to get cleaned up and headed over to Becky and Sasha's soon. Shopping was up first, and while Bayley's life might not be going good right now, Charlotte still needed her help and she'd be damned if another friend of hers was suffering.

Then tonight, when they all went out to do some good in the streets, she would show herself and Paige that she could be a hero. That she could do some good. That she could make a difference. She'd make Paige proud of her.

Becky was dying. Okay, maybe that wasn't the right word for it, but when you were the only one of your friend group who hated shopping, it really seemed like you were dying. Sasha did this for a living, so she was picking out the best deals and clothes for everyone. Charlotte, next to Becky, needed the most help finding stuff that fit her body type, but Sasha was good and already found her a few things.

Sasha always got frustrated when she went shopping with Bayley and Becky specifically. Bayley would try to buy everything that had a fun design, no matter how embarrassing or brightly colored it was, while Becky would buy a back of black T-shirts and shrug helplessly and beg to go do something else. Becky didn't know how Sasha could be so high and mighty. Yeah, she had a bunch of nice clothes and was very stylish, but if they walked by Hot Topic then Sasha would buy a ton of anime shirts.

After their talk the night that she met Dean, Becky and Sasha had been great. No fights and they were both looking forward to this day with their two friends. Maybe they were looking forward to different parts of it, but close enough. Becky couldn't wait to get to the fun part and put on her mask so they could kick some ass. But she had to remind herself that this day wasn't about her. This day was about Charlotte.

Charlotte looked like she was relaxing. Her smiles were more genuine and longer and she was beginning to look like their old mischievous friend again. She still looked exhausted with dark circles under her eyes that even her perfect make-up couldn't hide. But, with arms full of new clothes and the time she spent with all three of them, she was finally relaxing and becoming herself again.

Becky felt the vibrations before she heard any of the screaming. A huge bang had erupted not too far from the store they were in downtown. They looked up at a nearby television monitor to see that, in fact, breaking news was happening. The live stream showed it was the Nature Boy again. He was in his sonic suit, using sound waves to send cars flying and breaking glass in nearby buildings. It showed him turning towards a clothing store that Becky realized was the one they were in a little too late. Luckily, Bayley had a quicker reaction. She grabbed all three of them with her super strength and threw all of them, including herself over the counter.

Becky felt the sonic vibrations rip through the store. It hurt her ears to an incredible degree, but since they were out of the direct blast radius it only sounded like a loud, "Woo!" She looked at Sasha who looked absolutely enraged. Becky understood the feeling. They didn't have their masks, and it was the middle of the day. They couldn't do a damn thing without risking their identities, unless it was life and death. Becky shifted her head to look at Bayley and Charlotte. Charlotte had gone completely pale, her face tight and scared. Bayley looked terrified, but resolute.

Bayley caught Becky's gaze. "There are people out there. The Sentinels will be here in a couple minutes. I gotta go save who I can until they get here!"

Becky, Charlotte, and Sasha all shared a look. Sasha spoke up, "Bayley, this is a super villain, you can't take him by yourself."

Bayley gave Sasha a trembling smile, "Just watch me. Just make sure the people I send in here get in safely and behind some walls." And with that she leaped over the counter. Becky and Sasha looked at each other, used to the heat of combat and nodded. They couldn't help Bayley fight, but they could make sure the people were safe.

Becky turned to Charlotte, "You aren't used to this. Stay here and stay safe."

Charlotte tried to reach out and grip Becky, "Please-"

Becky gave her a reassuring smile, "Char, we got this. We love you and we just want you to be safe, so stay here."

Without waiting for an answer she and Sasha hopped over the counter. There were some stunned and limping people making their way through the rubble. Sasha and Becky immediately began guiding them behind walls and pillars for safety. In between helping people Becky watched Bayley move, and damn was she impressed. Bayley was dodging sonic blasts like a pro. She would wait for her moment to strike and then deliver a devastating punch to the sonic suit sending it back a few steps.

Sasha helped the last little girl hide in the bathroom and went to join Becky who was crouched behind a wall watching Bayley. It had only been a few minutes, the Sentinels would be arriving soon to take over, but it felt like it had been hours. Sasha and Becky both watched as Bayley leapt back gracefully before running forward and delivering a huge superman punch to the suit. They could faintly see the man inside rattle against the glass encasing him. He was stunned so Bayley wrapped her arms around the lower half of the suit, almost like a hug, and lifted it over and slammed it into the ground. The ground cratered under the impact.

Becky and Sasha looked at each other, wide eyed, "Holy shit," they both breathed. Bayley could be scary. Bayley threw herself clear of the crater. She was only supposed to be biding for time anyway, but then something flashed across her face: a little sadness that was quickly replaced by determination. She quickly backed up a few steps before launching into a full sprint. Just as she did this, the suit staggered into standing position. It raised its sonic guns and fired. The shockwave caused the dust and smoke to race towards Bayley. The smoke and dust coated the street turned battlefield. Sasha and Becky looked at each other in worry, and sprinted towards where they had last seen their friend.

Bayley dodged to the side of the dust and debris. She was surprised she was even holding her own. She kept her momentum by rolling and immediately continuing into her running stride again. The dust made it tough to see, but she could make out the silver of the suit and made a straight line for that. Maybe this was foolish of her, but she'd make Paige proud. She'd make sure she still deserved to be in Paige's life. And if this was the way to prove to her that she was a hero, then Bayley was going to send the Nature Boy to jail by herself. What she didn't expect was rebounding off of something rock like and cold. She hit her head, and the full force of her run into something that didn't even budge.

She felt dazed as she staggered back, her back now towards the direction of the suit. If she were a cartoon there would be birds flying around her head. She most likely had a concussion. Paige was going to kill her. She stumbled and tried to find her direction again. She turned around and felt a strange sensation in her stomach. She looked down confused.

Becky and Sasha finally made it to the other side of the dust cloud. They see a flash of purple and a grunt. They moved forward quickly. They dodged a sonic blast that pushed the dust and debris out of the area. They looked up and Becky felt her eyes widen. Her lips opened in a call that would come too late.

Bayley is standing there, her arms down at her side and her head down. A crystalline hand is sticking out her back through her stomach. Becky can't make her voice work as she watched Bayley look up slowly into the eyes of a crystalized Charlotte. Becky can see both of their faces. Bayley looked confused, obviously in shock and not feeling the pain. Charlotte is looking at her arm in shock and horror. She couldn't even look up in Bayley's face for what seemed like several seconds. When Charlotte did look up and locked eyes with Bayley, Becky could see Bayley mouth 'why' at Charlotte, before Charlotte ripped the arm away with a cry of disbelief.

Becky watches as Bayley's blood spattered on the pavement. Bayley staggers and falls on her back. Becky finally makes her legs work as she sprints over with Sasha to where Bayley had fallen. They had not taken two steps when they heard the loudest wail of distress they'd ever heard. Becky chanced a look over, ready to burn anyone that tried to hurt her friend further, identity be damned, but instead of an enemy they saw that the Sentinels had arrived and Shimmer was at the front of the group, having seen the whole thing.

"BAYLEY!"


	13. Chapter 13

Paige couldn't see anything other than Bayley, lying on the pavement in the afternoon sun. She couldn't think anything, as blood rushed in her ears. She didn't really even feel her feet as they pushed off the ground giving her speed she never thought imaginable. She slid on the hot pavement by Bayley's head, not caring about the road burn or scrapes she would endure. Bayley was the only thing that mattered now.

She picked up Bayley's head that already felt heavier in her hands and laid it across her pale thighs. She stroked back some of the hair that had fallen out of Bayley's signature side ponytail. She could feel the panic welling up in her chest as the sight of Bayley with a hole through her stomach.

Bayley's eyes looked completely glazed over, but they flickered and narrowed in on Paige. Bayley tried to smile, but only succeeded in showing Paige how bloodstained her teeth were. Paige chocked back a sob, but quieted herself when Bayley tried to speak.

"Shimmer…"

Paige shook her head and uncaringly threw her mask off. In front of her friends, in front of her co workers, in front of Bayley's friends and whatever cameras were in the vicinity. She didn't care. She'd be damned if the last time Bayley saw her was going to be behind a mask- no she couldn't think like that. She could faintly hear people moving about them, but they all drowned out into the background.

Bayley furrowed her brows, "Your mask…"

"Screw the mask. Bayley, you're going to be okay. You have to be okay. We were gonna talk tomorrow." Paige couldn't help but let a tear fall on Bayley's face as she held her head against her legs and tried to soothe the girl.

"I'm sorry, Paige. I shouldn't have taken him on by myself. I wasn't ready, just like you said. I just wanted to make you proud…" She coughed, and some crimson blood slipped past the corner of her lips and tracked down the side of her face on to Paige's thigh.

Paige felt like her heart was ripping out of her chest. Bayley was apologizing to her after everything Paige had said. Paige was at fault, for everything. She had been a raging bitch to Bayley the night before and this morning and Bayley felt like she had something to prove to herself and Paige. She might as well have stabbed Bayley herself. But there was something in Bayley's eyes that made her pause. This wasn't just an apology. No, it sounded like Bayley was trying to say goodbye. "No, I was wrong. You were ready. You are ready. You've always been a hero, Bayley. My hero. Now, shut up. You have to save your strength while they save you."

Bayley just gave her a grim smile, before turning her head to look at Sasha and Becky who were next to Paige. She hadn't noticed them being there at all, but with one glace she knew how this was affecting them. Sasha looked like she was about to throw up, her make up was smudged, and Paige could see some tear tracks on her face. She looked like she was trying to stay strong. Paige could see why when she looked at Becky. Becky was openly sobbing, trying to stop the blood flow with her hands to vey little effect. Her hands were absolutely covered with the red stuff, but she still tried in vain to save Bayley.

Bayley looked at Sasha first. "Sasha, don't forget all your stuff at my place, okay? Stay out of too much trouble, and give Becky lots of hugs, okay? She's gonna need them and so will you, even though you'll never admit it."

Sasha let a few more tear fall before nodding, not being able to say anything. She reached forward and grabbed Bayley's hand and Paige could see her squeeze it tightly. Paige knew it was selfish and foolish, but she wished Becky and Sasha weren't here at this moment. She knew they loved Bayley, but not the way she did. And with that thought Paige felt the realization that Bayley would never know. But before she could think on that too long, Bayley had looked down at Becky who was still trying to stem the blood flow.

"Becky, please stop."

"No, you're gonna be okay. Just gotta stop the blood." Becky looked absolutely manic. Her eyes were glassy and the tears overflowed without her even trying to stop them.

"Becky, it's okay. Just make sure you find Charlotte. Something is going on with her, and she needs you guys. Don't be too mad, okay?" Bayley looked so still and peaceful that Paige wanted to vomit. She was supposed to be a bundle of energy. She was supposed to be annoying; she was supposed to be her Bayley.

"She's the one who did this to you!" Becky had finally stopped fussing over the wound, and was looking at Bayley's face.

Bayley simply tried for a small smile, "Just promise me."

Becky looked at Sasha before looking back at Bayley and nodding as a tiny sob escaped. Bayley relaxed her shoulders, like a weight had been lifted off, then her eyes lazily swung over to Paige again, and Paige bit her lip hard to keep from screaming in fury and sadness. This couldn't be happening.

"Paige… I'm so glad you're here…"

"Shut up." Paige said, cutting her off.

"Paige, listen…" She tried, her eyes looking like they were drifting off. Paige could tell that time was running out. That thought alone made her feel like she wanted to scratch her skin off and jump into a hole forever.

"No, you listen! You don't get to die! Not now! You don't get to leave me just because I was a dick to you! No, you aren't saying goodbye, because you aren't going anywhere. Not when I have so much to tell you! We still need to talk! You need to know why!"

Bayley reaches up her hand that isn't being held by Sasha, and now Becky, to wipe away a tear that was rolling down Paige's cheek. Paige kept one hand soothing Bayley's cheek as the other hand reached up and pressed Bayley's hand against her own. Bayley's hand still felt warm against Paige's skin. She clutched her eyes shut tightly as another wave of tears pored over. "Bayley, you can't leave. You don't get to be selfless your whole life and get to start being selfish now. Please, I just need to show you how much you mean to me. You aren't just my best friend; you're my everything. I just needed to show you and get over my fear of losing you." She gulped in a needy breath as sobs began to rack her body. "I love you, please don't go!"

Paige opened her eyes expecting to see Bayley's chocolate brown ones staring up at her. But they were closed. Paige's eyes widened as she let go of Bayley's hand to smooth both of her own over Bayley's cheeks. Bayley's hand flopped to the ground listlessly, and Paige calling her name didn't open those pretty brown orbs. Paige looked at Bayley's chest and didn't see it rise. Paige screamed and the world went black.


	14. Chapter 14

Sasha didn't know how to feel. She felt absolutely livid, but also like she wanted to sit down and cry until she couldn't anymore. She took a quick glance over to Becky, and saw that she wasn't faring much better. Becky was staring down at the spotless white floor. Everything else was just as white. It made the dried blood on her hands stand out even further. Bayley's blood.

After Paige had screamed Bayley's body had been enveloped in shadow. They'd looked up to see Finn chanting some dark words that had brought forth the shadow and enveloped Bayley. Page, they had come to find out her name from Bayley during her goodbye, was still crying, and Becky had been crying and clutching on to Sasha for support. Charlotte had disappeared by the time they had gotten there, as had The Nature Boy's sonic suit.

Becky began to wring her hands together again to try to chip off the blood as they waited for news about Bayley. Finn had continued to chant and summon energy for a solid ten minutes before paramedics arrived. Paige had gone with the ambulance as Finn collapsed from his efforts. Roman Reigns had taken them by car to the hospital to see their friend. And while Becky began to get more and more desperate to get the damn blood off of her hands, Sasha was not having it any easier.

Sasha was angrily muttering to herself, but she was sure Becky couldn't hear any of the words, plus it looked she couldn't be bothered to focus on that because the blood wasn't coming off. She stood up and Sasha turned to face her. Becky looked like she wanted to peel the skin off her hand just so she didn't have to look at the blood anymore. Sasha knew she was about to freak out and strode forward in three easy steps to grab her hands. Becky fought against her for a few seconds before becoming complete dead weight. She dropped her head on Sasha's shoulder and let out a desperate sob. Sasha hugged her back and rocked her back and forth. Sasha wasn't really a comfort person but Becky needed her to be right now, and the more Sasha focused on Becky the less she had to examine her own feelings.

They sat like this for a while, before finally Becky and Sasha both sat down. Becky sniffed and looked to her friend, "What are you thinking?"

Sasha tried to look hateful, "I'm thinking about Bayley, what else would I be thinking about?"

Becky gulped, "She's gonna be okay right?"

Sasha nods, "She has to be."

Becky looked up towards the white ceiling, "Why did this happen? How did this happen? Did Charlotte miss or was it an accident?"

"Of course it wasn't an accident! She stabbed her through the stomach. She wanted to hurt her! Wanted to kill her!" Sasha couldn't believe that Becky still wanted to find good in their former friend.

Becky face showed her heartbreak. Sasha felt the same. Charlotte was their friend… It didn't make any sense. Charlotte was amazing. She cared for everyone and was like the older sister they never had. She was the backbone of their group and she'd just tried to kill Bayley.

"There has to be a reason." Becky once again tried to find something good about a situation where nothing was ever going to be good about it.

"Who cares about the reason!?" Sasha shouted back at her, "We are going to make her pay, and we'll find out why right before we send her away for good."

Becky tried her best to nod, but the look on her face couldn't help but make Sasha feel her heart tearing more. "D-Do you remember how we all met?"

Sasha deflated from her righteous anger quickly. "Of course I do. We all met one right after the other."

Becky sighed, "It was good times for sure."

Flashback

Sasha sighed at the bell ringing from the storefront. She had a test tomorrow to study for and someone had to come in five minutes till close? She loved her retail job at this boutique, but some of the customers really irked her the wrong way. She pulled her nose up from her text book and saw a girl, a couple years older than her, with pretty blonde hair peeking around the store. She had a nice leather jacket on with a nice white shirt and very stylish jeans. She saw Sasha and walked up to the counter. She gave Sasha an apologetic smile, and Sasha could already tell that this customer wasn't going to give her too much trouble.

"Hi, I'm sorry for getting in here so late. I don't need to buy anything, but I heard you guys have personal shoppers? I could really use some help, cause finding clothes in my size is super difficult. So I just need to sign up for that."

Sasha smiled and nodded, "I can do that. I'll just need to get some of your information. Name?"

"Charlotte Flair."

Sasha smiled; she loved when customers made things easy for her. "Okay, I'll just need your phone number and email address."

Charlotte rattled them off in quick succession. Sasha typed everything in and smiled back at the pleasant woman. "Alright, we're all set. Just come in when you're ready and we can get measurements and start finding clothes we'd think you'd like."

When Charlotte didn't respond Sasha tracked her line of sight. Charlotte was looking at her still open textbook. Sasha blushed a little at leaving it in the open like that. Charlotte turned back to her, "You go to college?"

Sasha nodded, "Yeah, fashion design major with a minor in health and fitness studies."

Charlotte beamed, "No way, I majored in health and fitness! I actually do personal training at a gym not far from here. You should come down sometime. Or I can help you study while we shop."

Sasha was grinning, "That actually sounds really nice. You want me to be your personal shopper?"

Charlotte smiled, "Well absolutely. We're already hitting it off and I'd love to shop with someone I like more than someone I could only tolerate. So it's nice to meet you…"

"Sasha." She said pointing to her nametag.

Charlotte laughed, "Yeah, I know. Some people don't like you using their named unless you ask first. It'd be weird if I just called you Sasha."

Sasha nodded her head, "Thank you! At least someone gets it. I can't tell you how many middle-aged women come in here and do that. Annoys me so much."

Charlotte laughed at Sasha's humor, before giving her a warm smile. "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

End Flashback

Sasha remembered that time fondly. She had been a senior at the time and really struggling in school. Charlotte had helped her a lot with that class over the next several months of the fall. By the time her final semester was rolling around, she was hanging out with Charlotte rather than going to campus parties. They almost always agreed on things and had similar taste in fashion. Sasha didn't really care for Charlotte's husband at the time. Bram was brash and arrogant, but he doted on Charlotte and Sasha could respect him for that, at least.

She was broken out of her memory by a flash of white on the white background. She and Becky stood as the doctor came around the corner. He looked at them and came closer, withholding the information that they truly wanted to know. He finally spoke, "You are Sasha and Becky? I was told you were family."

They looked at each other before Becky turned back, being better at thinking up things for these situations. "Half-sisters. Dad got around, ya know?" Bless her quick wit.

The doctor shrugged, before turning serious. "She's alive. The wound just missed her spinal cord; otherwise we'd be having a different conversation. But that's all I can really say at the moment."

Sasha felt immense relief at the statement, she felt like all the tension in her body drained out in one swift moment. She staggered into Becky, who caught her.

"What do you mean?" Becky had seemed to catch the tail end more than Sasha did.

"She's in a coma. I don't know when, or if, she'll wake up. Could be hours, could be years. Normally, I'd ask the family if they'd like to decide if it worth it to keep her in here long term, because housing her and treating her here for, possibly, years would be extremely expensive. But Finn Balor says that the Sentinels are paying for her, so I'll not burden you with that decision."

Sasha breathed out. She was alive, but she wasn't awake. She might never be awake. But Sasha knew Bayley and she was strong. Maybe the strongest out of the four of them, just from how pure and good her heart was. She could come back from this.

Becky wrapped an arm around Sasha. Sasha leaned into it. "Can we see her?"

The doctor shrugged, "I have no problem with it, but you'll have to talk to the Sentinels that are guarding her. Shimmer won't leave her side, and they are always protective when one of theirs gets hurt."

Becky took Sasha's hand and led her down the way the doctor came after listening to the room number Bayley was in. She was always amazed at how quickly Becky could bounce back from something. A minute ago she was a crying mess, but now she was being the adult out of the two of them. Sasha couldn't help, but think on how she and Becky had met and how two opposites ended up being the best thing for them.

Flashback

Sasha smiled at the blonde woman, Summer, that was just getting up from her couch. They had just finished an interview to be Sasha's new roommate and Sasha had to say that Summer was a great candidate. They both had an interest in fashion, and Summer seemed like a genuinely sweet person. The interview hadn't gone the best, but they had enough in common that they could grow into friends. Just because Sasha made a few jokes and poke fun at some things, and Summer hadn't laughed, didn't mean anything.

She opened the door for her. "Thank you for applying, I'll let you know in a couple days."

"Of course! Thanks for even considering me."

Sasha watched Summer walk down the hall. She was sure that they would end up meshing together better over time. She was a lot better than any of the other candidates at least. Sasha turned to clothes the door before a hand shot out and stopped it.

Sasha jumped back surprised. A girl with reddish brown hair had her hands on her knees and was panting. She looked dirty and sweaty in her tank top that was ripped and dusty. Were those oil stains on her hands? She had a piece of paper, the flyer for her roommate position clutched in her hand.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to cut it this close! Is the room still available?" The girl peeked up from her hunched over position. Her eyes peeked through the curtain of her hair. Sasha didn't want to have another interview, nor did this girl seem to be compatible with her. She was sloppily dressed and if she was late then there wasn't much she could do.

"Sure. Come on in and we can talk." Dammit, sometimes Sasha was too nice. But the girl gave her a relieved smile and stood up. She was just a little taller than Sasha, but not obscenely so.

"Oh thank God." Her Irish accent was easy to pick up now that she wasn't so out of breath. The accent really made her pleasant to listen to. Something that Summer didn't really have with her voice being so high. "I had to run from work and didn't get a chance to change or anything." She moved over and sat down across from Sasha on the couch, sitting right on the edge.

"It's totally fine!" Sasha reassured her. "So you have a job…?"

"Becky Lynch," she supplied. "And yeah I have a job. I'm a mechanic, which probably explain all," she waved around at herself, making Sasha snort with amusement, "this."

"So where are you living now?" Sasha saw Becky fidget in her seat on the couch and blush.

"Uh, my car. I've been saving for months to put a down payment on an apartment, which means my car is basically stationary at the moment cause I can't pay for gas." She holds up the flyer, "Then I saw this and I have a couple months rent saved up now, and it'll be less than paying for a place of my own."

That explained a whole lot for Sasha. It explained why Becky looked dirty and exhausted. She must have been working hard and having restless nights on the street. "Wow, that's a lot to take in…"

Becky gave her a sheepish smile, "I'm not trying to guilt you, I swear. I look like a right mess right now, but your rent seems really manageable for me." Then she looks down at the flyer and frowns, "But based on your interests, we may not have a lot in common, but I'm a good roommate, and I'll give you free car maintenance."

Sasha smiled, this girl was trying really hard and she admired the passion. "I don't have a car."

"I'll build you one." Becky looked completely serious.

Sasha let out a little laugh, "Thank you for the offer, but I don't really need one with all the cabs around."

Becky deflated a little, "Yeah, it was a long shot… sorry to waste your time."

Becky began to stand up and silently and very slowly, so much so that it looked like she was making a conscious effort to go that slow, began to walk away. Something hit Sasha like a lightning strike in that moment. They'd been talking this whole time and, for the first time, she didn't feel like she was interviewing someone. It might as well have been a friendly getting to know you conversation. "Becky wait!"

She turned around quickly; hope sparking in her eyes. "Oh thank God. Walking that slowly was gonna be real embarrassing if that didn't work."

Sasha laughed again, "Listen, every girl that I've interviewed has had my same interests and it was such a task to go through those interviews. You're funny and adorable," Becky grinned at her widely, a little blush staining her cheeks, "and, for the first time, I felt like I was chatting with a friend."

Becky smiled, "Does that mean I get it? Cause I'm good at being a friend. All the angry boys in high school back in Ireland will tell you that."

Sasha laughed again at her corny joke about "the friendzone" and nodded, "You can move in this weekend. Until then, you are going to stay for dinner and take a shower."

Becky blushed, "Um, alright. Do you always order people around this much?"

Sasha smiled, "Yep. You'll meet Charlotte soon and she'll tell you all about it."

Becky smiled, "Whatever you say, Boss."

End Flashback

Sasha entered the room first. She almost ran right back out. But Becky was right behind her so she couldn't go anywhere. Bayley was right there laid out on the bed. Tubes were sticking out of her arms and her nose. Luckily, she didn't need help breathing so her throat wasn't obstructed or anything. The other wise white room had a dark spot. Paige was sitting with her head down, her arms outstretched and holding Bayley's hand. She didn't even look up at them when they entered.

Becky grabbed Sasha's hand and they both walked towards the bedside together. Sasha gripped Becky's hand hard. Her sadness and rage were beginning to consume her again. Becky squeezed her hand back just as hard and their eyes connected. An understanding passed between them and they both turned to grab chairs. They pulled them up to Bayley's other side and sat. They both grabbed her other hand and stroked their thumbs over the back of it.

Paige still hadn't moved or spoke. Sasha looked over at her, "You're staying with her?" She watched as Paige just nodded. "You'll protect her here?" Again, she nodded. "And your team is paying for her?"

Finally she spoke, "She's one of us. She'll get the best care."

Sasha looked at her closely, "Not just cause she's on your team. You love her." She had heard what Paige had said to Bayley. None of them knew if Bayley had heard what she said, but Paige had admitted love for their super strong friend. It was kind of an accepted fact, among the four of them, that Bayley and Becky didn't date. Maybe this was Bayley's reason. But in the end, Bayley was one of her best friends, and girl or guy, Sasha was going make sure they were going treat Bayley right.

Paige finally looked up at Sasha; mascara was coming down her face in thick rivers. Her eyes were red and she looked like she already hadn't slept for a couple days. "Yes."

Sasha looked her over. Bayley was her best friend and had been for a long time. It was her job to look out for her, but sometimes Bayley looked out for others more. She always had since they met.

Flashback

Sasha was walking to her next class. She was trying a new shortcut that was supposed to cut five minutes off the long walk. She had just rounded the corner of a building when she saw a group of dudebros surrounding someone. She didn't like to get involved with those types. They always led to trouble, and they were the one type of guys that Eddie had warned her about before she went off to college. Before he died.

As she tried to sneak past them without attracting their attention she caught a glance of what looked like clothing that had been vomited on by a rainbow. She stopped and took a closer look. There was a girl, about her own age that was surrounded by all of the boys. She looked uncomfortable and kept trying to leave the circle of them, but they weren't letting her through.

That pissed Sasha enough that she stormed over and shoved two of them out of the way. "Back off, jackasses. She's trying to walk." She watched the girl snap her head over and look at her wide-eyed.

The leader of the guys looked over and scoffed, "We were just having some fun, chill out."

"Well your fun doesn't look like it's contagious. Now let her walk."

The guy held up his hands. "Fine, she can go with you."

Sasha glared at him, but turned to the girl and nodded with her head. The girl fell into step right beside her quickly and shot her a grateful smile. Sasha was about out of the throng of boys when she felt a hand cup her ass and squeeze. She jolted and, before she could even squeak in surprise, the girl beside her turned and punched the boy, who was still pulling his hand back, right in the nose. He reeled back and clutched at his face, blood starting to seep through his fingers.

"You bitch! I think you broke my nose!" He lunged at the rainbow girl, who yelped and looked surprised by the sudden aggression. Sasha had her wits back now, however, and delivered a punch to his eye. Just like she learned from Eddie. The guy fell back into his friends, who all looked completely shocked.

The girl looked at her wide-eyed again, and took her hand, sprinting the opposite direction of Sasha's class. She didn't really need to go anyway, plus her hand hurt now. That was an acceptable reason to miss class. They finally came to a stop before the girl let go of her hand. She turned to her, still a bit out of breath.

She grinned, happily at Sasha. "I'm Bayley. Thanks for the save."

"Sasha. Sorry I didn't come sooner. But I do have a question." Bayley furrowed her brow.

"Sure, shoot."

"If you could punch like that, why didn't you just deck them and walk off on your own?"

Bayley tilted her head like she didn't think about it. "Well, I don't really know. I mean the only time I've punched someone before was when it was my roommate's ex who wouldn't leave her alone. Maybe I only punch good when I protecting other people… that's weird."

Sasha laughed, "You're adorable. My roommate would love you."

Bayley smiled, "I'm glad you think so." She frowned, "Am I keeping you from something?"

Sasha waved her off, "No, I can miss a day. I say we go get lunch and chat. You'll have to teach me how you learned to punch like that."

Bayley smiled and held her arm out for Sasha to take. Sasha rolled her eyes at the playfulness and took it.

End of Flashback

Paige had held her gaze the entire time, and Sasha could only see devotion, love, and pain in them. All directed at and for Bayley. She was lucky that this woman cared so much about her. She knew in the end it would be Bayley's decision, but Paige had earned Sasha's respect, and her approval. "Good. You protect her, and you and I are good."

Paige gave her a tiny smile and nodded before turning her eyes back to Bayley. They watched her sleep peacefully for a few hours without saying anything, before Sasha began to feel Becky start drooping next to her. They said goodbye to Paige and each placed a kiss on Bayley's forehead before the left.

Becky and Sasha didn't say anything, both of them needing sleep after the day they had. Sasha crawled into her bed and reached over to turn off the lamp when her eyes strayed and landed on the framed picture of the four of them. Becky was standing together with Sasha in the middle, while Bayley and Charlotte stood on the outside of them both. They were all smiling and had their arms around one another. Sasha was hit with another batch of nostalgia of happier times, before it all went to shit.

Flashback

Charlotte sighed and put her head in her hands. Sasha couldn't help but feel awful for her. This divorce was taking it out of her. She rarely smiled anymore, and after the court hearing today where she found out that Bram was going to keep the dog, she had come straight over to Sasha and Becky's place. Becky was rummaging around in the kitchen for something to drink and eat for them. Sasha had texted Bayley who was on her way over.

Sasha sat down next to Charlotte who was still hunched over and rubbed her back soothingly. Charlotte just sat like that for a while before finally sitting up. She gave Sasha a small thankful smile before Becky interrupted their moment. She came over with a couple glasses and a large bottle of Jack Daniels.

Sasha glared at her roommate, "She doesn't drink that stuff. It's unhealthy and-" She was interrupted by Charlotte grabbing the bottle from Becky and drinking straight from it. Sasha's eyes were wide, and Becky was giving her a victorious smirk. Charlotte put the bottle down and let them pour a glass for each of them. No sooner had they done this than the front door banged open and in ran Bayley.

She had a Kroger bag slung over her shoulder and she skidded to a stop in front of them. "Don't worry Charlotte! Bayley is here to save the day! I brought every flavor of ice cream that they had and bought a bunch of those action movies you like!"

Sasha looked at Charlotte who was actually smiling. "Thank you, Bayley. That's very thoughtful. The movies and sitting here squeezed onto one couch with you all and eating ice cream out of the carton is exactly what I need."

Bayley ran over and began to set the DVD up on the TV. Becky plopped down on the other end of the couch, while Bayley sat between her and Charlotte once the movie was taken care of. She snuggled into Charlotte who wrapped an arm around all of them, and then they busted open the ice cream cartons.

End of Flashback

They had all ended up falling asleep against each other that night. It was on the best night Sasha had ever had. Sasha felt a tear, the first one she had shed all day, fall onto the picture that she now held on her lap. Things could have stayed that way forever. But now, Charlotte had almost killed Bayley and now Bayley might now ever wake up. Charlotte broke them. She tore them to pieces. It was her fault.

Sasha felt the rage build up again and she slammed the picture down. The glass scattered everywhere along her floor. She squeezed her eyes shut as angry tears streamed freely now. She had worked too damn hard to put her life back together after Eddie died, only to have all that she worked for ripped away from the inside. She was going to make someone pay.

Charlotte stared down at the picture. She and Bayley on the outside of Becky and Sasha while they all smiled into the camera. Bayley and Charlotte, the two opposites. Good and Evil. Opposite ends of the spectrum while Becky and Sasha sat in shades of grey. She couldn't believe what today had turned into. After finding out that her dad was the Nature Boy after finding his Sonic Suit in the office, she'd be wracked with nightmares and indecision.

Those feelings soon turned to hate for her father. He was putting his life on the line and helping those "heroes" kill more innocents as collateral damage. But when she had seen what he was doing today, and how close he had been to losing, her protective instincts for him shot through her. Bayley was one of them now. The ones who killed her brother. She may hate what her father had become, but Charlotte could be better than him. She protected him because he was the only family she had left. But she would be better than him, and she'd make sure that the right people paid for her brother's death.

"They'll come after you now." Her father's voice sounded from behind her. "You can't have sentimentality now."

She whirled around on him, her body becoming crystal. Spikes formed along her shoulders and arms, the picture still clutched in her hand. "Shut up, old man. You have no right to tell me what to do. You're lucky I chose to save you. Now, go fix your stupid machine, and then you'll take orders from me, or I'll finish what Bayley started."

Her dad looked like he'd been struck. She'd already told him that she was in charge now, and he hadn't taken to that too well, but when she had showcased her powers he had backed down like the coward he was. He nodded and sulked out of her room.

She looked back down at the picture, the frame now cracked from her showcase of dominance and strength. Her dad was right, she didn't need sentimentality. She'd chosen her side, and she'd chosen her family. Reid would understand, even if Sasha, Becky, and Bayley didn't.

She threw the frame down and began to stalk out of the room. She needed to go prepare and make sure her idiot father didn't screw up the instructions that she gave him. They had already raided her apartment for anything she'd need. Obviously, Bayley, Sasha, and Becky all knew where she lived so that was going to have to change.

When she reached the doorway, something wasn't letting her leave or go beyond the threshold. She looked back at the wrinkled photograph lying in a pile of broken glass and felt sadness and longing overtake her. She took a few steps back and picked the photo up gently. She looked at it once more, scanning their smiling faces, and flashing through every good time they'd had together.

She folded it quietly in half and then in half again. She took the folded picture and stuck it in her jacket pocket, the one right over her heart. She placed a hand over it and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry." She whispered to her empty room, and then she walked out, never to return to this place.


	15. Chapter 15

Paige hummed what she thought was a pleasant tune into the sterile air as she ran the comb through Bayley's soft brown locks. It would probably be more pleasant if the machines weren't obnoxiously loud, but the beeping meant that Bayley was still okay, which was really all that mattered to Paige. She was going through her daily ritual of brushing and combing out Bayley's hair. It was soothing to her to know she was doing something for the girl she loved, even if she couldn't change her condition.

Bayley loved getting her hair played with or brushed. It was her weakness. Paige used to do it for her in college most days while they sat in front of the television. It never failed to make Bayley sleepy or relaxed, even if she was stressing about an upcoming exam. Paige liked doing it because, well, it was Bayley. Playing with her crush's hair was such a little innocent thing, but it meant a lot to Paige. It meant almost as much as their little ritual they did before she went out on duty.

As soon as that thought struck Paige she felt the guilt shoot through her again. That was the last conversation she'd had with Bayley before she was dying. A fight, where she wouldn't even let Bayley put her mask on for her. Paige felt like such a dick as she flew away, but now the feeling was so much worse. Not only had that been their last normal conversation, but also Paige had told a dying Bayley that she loved her. What was she expecting? Bayley was so far gone already; she might not have even heard her. But everyone else did. Bayley's friends, their co-workers. Everyone.

Paige felt a teardrop fall onto her hand, which had paused in the combing process. She hastily wiped at her eyes, not willing to cry again. She'd done it in front of everyone, and had been doing it constantly at the hospital. It'd only been three days and she'd cried more than she had in her entire life. Everything was running through her mind. She mostly worried about whether Bayley was going to wake up. She'd worry about what she would be like if she did wake up. And, she worried if Bayley had heard her confession, but she would immediately berate herself for thinking so selfishly while her best friend is in a coma. Her feelings could take a back seat, but that never stopped the idea from wiggling back into her mind.

It was actually rather hard for her to separate her view of Bayley as both a best friend and her crush. She was worried about her in both contexts, but until she knew Bayley's feelings she was forcing herself to stick to what they had and not what she hoped they would have. Some people didn't want to leave it like that though.

Finn had been coming by everyday and bringing Paige fresh clothes and stuff she needed from the base. She had revealed her identity to her entire team in her panic to get to Bayley so that Bayley would see her face before she… Finn had even sat with her and kept her company, learning about her as Paige and not just as Shimmer. She'd finally been able to unload everything onto her male best friend's shoulders and he'd taken it mostly in stride. He comforted her when she revealed the history of her and Bayley and would give her happy promises that Bayley would be stupid not to like her back, and all the other clichés. He still struggled calling her Paige, but that would probably improve in time.

Her other teammates would come by sometimes, never longer than a half an hour, but they'd get to know her as Paige a little. She appreciated the effort, but they gave her such pitying looks. She guessed that was the consequence of revealing yourself to everyone and proclaiming your love for someone as they were dying, only to not know if they heard you.

She hadn't seen Bayley's friends since that first day. She would have thought they'd be here everyday, but she saw something in their eyes that day, especially when she stared down Sasha, that helped her not to judge them. She could see how much they cared for Bayley. They probably needed to process their feelings together in solitude. Something that Paige wished she could do, but she can barely handle being away from Bayley for a ten-minute shower that Finn makes her take everyday. Even when she tries to fight him on it, he persuades her every time, saying that she did nothing but sit there and stare at Bayley.

They both knew she did more than that. She combed Bayley's hair, as she was doing now. She also cleaned Bayley's face; something that Paige hoped Bayley would appreciate when she woke up. She also held Bayley's hand and told her stories of her adventures. She talked to her about every single feeling that Paige had for her since college and how she had fought them for so long. She kissed Bayley's knuckles and begged for her to wake up when the trip down memory lane became too much to bear with their current situation.

Paige finally finished brushing the last section of her hair and gently replaced her head where it had been before, placing her hair neatly in a frame around her face, which was still peacefully asleep. Paige could have stared at her for hours, but knowing that this wasn't just any sleep made her almost fall apart every time.

She just kept staring and getting lost in her thoughts. Finn would be here soon to give her a rest so she could shower and change. With her eyes unfocused, she caught the movement of shadows on the wall in front of her. She immediately snapped back to reality and turned around. Sunlight was streaming in through the window. Someone must have just passed by the window or something. Paige relaxed back into her chair and went back on trying not to focus on Bayley.

It wasn't until she was finally washing herself in the shower, with Finn watching Bayley that she remembered that they were on the third floor.

Becky ducked a punch and sent the thug that had swung at her back a few feet with a fire blast. He rolled and smashed into a table and slumped down, unconscious. She and Sasha had been on a mission the past couple of days. Their main concern was to try to find Charlotte and get some answers and bring her in, but Becky would be lying if she said that taking these detours to let out their rage on bad guys was a bad idea. She and Sasha had woken up the morning after visiting Bayley, with their sadness and worry becoming rage. Sasha had suggested they go out and let off some steam and try to find Charlotte. Which led them to the current warehouse near the docks that they were raiding.

Becky jumped up on some boxes and let loose on some of the remaining guys. They fell over each other in an attempt to get away from her flames. Sasha came in moments later, shocking them all into unconsciousness. Becky hopped down and began moving between the boxes to wipe up any guys that were leftover. This wouldn't make Bayley wake up or get them answers from Charlotte, but it was certainly helping her anger.

Not only her anger, but also her sadness. Bayley was the sweetest of all of them. Sure, Sasha was a highly motivated boss, Becky was the quirky one, Charlotte was the highly athletic and mature one, but Bayley was the most pure. And not only had Charlotte betrayed all of them, but she'd gone after Bayley. Becky felt so much guilt that it hadn't been her, even if it just would have spared her friend from being where she was now. Her mask felt tight, and the goggles she wore over her eyes felt like they were squeezing her head until it burst. Her eyes were stinging with unshed tears. She wondered if crying with these goggles on would fill them up like in a cartoon. She wanted answers from Charlotte, she wanted an apology, and she wanted to see Charlotte behind bars. She didn't care if Charlotte was her former friend. She belonged in jail, and maybe they could help her bring the old Charlotte back.

Was it because of the powers she had gotten? That seemed to make the most sense to Becky. She was a sweetheart before, if a little damaged from her divorce and her brother's death, but then she got her powers and she became jumpy and unreliable. She hadn't wanted anything to do with her powers it had seemed, but she had obviously been practicing with them by the time she almost killed Bayley. Why would she even help the Nature Boy? Or did he have nothing to do with it and it was simply an attack on Bayley?

She didn't have too much time to ponder this as she felt a fist connect with her temple from a blind corner as she passed an intersection in the walls of boxes. She fell to the ground and looked up. It was a familiar sight. A gun was pointed down at her, seconds from ending her life. Not this again. She closed her eyes in a rush to call on her powers, but before she could, she felt something drop onto her face. She looked up, the man's eyes were blown wide, and blood was streaming out of his mouth as he tried to move it in order to make a sound. Becky's eyes widened and she brought her hand up to her face. When she looked at it, to confirm her worst fear, it came away red with the man's blood.

His grip on the gun failed and it dropped on the ground next to Becky, which finally gave her the time to examine him, and what she saw made her want to vomit or scream, whichever came first. Sasha's hand was coming through his chest, right where his heart should be. Her hand was still crackling with electrical energy, and it had gone right through him, like a blade. He looked down, and tried to grab at her hand, but his arms failed. He looked back up at Becky, where she saw the last remaining life drain out of his eyes, before her slid off of Sasha's hand and slumped to the floor.

Becky scrambled back on her butt until her back made contact with one of the boxes. She couldn't look away from the man, but she heard Sasha walking up to her, and it wasn't until Sasha grabbed her chin to make her look at her, now kneeling in front of Becky, that Becky could think again.

"Are you okay?" Sasha asked, her voice laced with concern, but her eyes were unreadable to Becky.


	16. Chapter 16

"Sasha, you k-killed that guy…" Becky's eyes drifted traitorously back over to the still body of what had once been a very alive human being.

"He was about to kill you," Sasha's voice snapped Becky out of it and brought her eyes back over to Sasha's. "I reacted."

Becky sucked in a shaky breath, nodding her head. "I know… thank you. I've just… I've never seen it that close before."

Sasha gave her a small smile, "Hey, I get it. Just breathe, okay?"

Becky nodded her head again and tried to control her breathing, but the only thing she could see when she closed her eyes was the light dying out of the man's eyes as he stood over her. She saw how the blood rolled out of his mouth and stained both her and Sasha; blood that they'll never get off. Blood that was exactly like Bayley's.

Becky turned and vomited on the floor. She wasn't proud of it, but when she felt Sasha rub her back soothingly and hold her hair for her, she let loose a quiet sob. After she had finally gotten her breathing under control, and had vomited up all of her lunch, she shakily stood, with Sasha helping her. She leaned against the crates and looked anywhere other than Sasha or the dead man on the floor.

"Hey, Becky, we should go home. You need to try to eat something and sleep." Sasha sounded worried about her, and reached out to touch her, but when Becky saw the blood on Sasha's hand still she dodged out of the way.

"No… I need time to process this… I'll be home later." Then Becky sprinted out of the warehouse, leaving behind a stunned and bewildered Sasha.

Becky got lost a few times in her state of mind, but finally she found the bar again. She ducked into Cactus Jack's, even though it was still early in the afternoon, and just hoped to God that Dean was there. She saw Sami behind the bar; he looked up and smiled at her before frowning. She didn't know how he could tell she was traumatized under her mask or goggles, but he pulled a couple glasses out and began mixing a drink. She sat down on the stool and he slid it over to her. She pulled down her bandana and downed the entire thing. Her face screwed up as the alcohol burned her throat.

Sami chuckled, "It's heavy on the alcohol. You looked like you needed to get drunk. Very, very drunk." She nodded and pointed for a refill that Sami obliged. He then excused himself with a small smile. "I'll get Dean."

Becky nodded at him in thanks and downed the second drink. She was already feeling a pleasant buzz from the drinks, but she didn't think she could drink enough to forget the look on that man's face when Sasha's hand went through his chest.

"Spitfire, you look like shit." She turned saw Dean sitting in the chair next to her. Had she been that lost in thought that she didn't notice him sitting down? He looked her over, his eyes showing worry, but he didn't let that spread to his demeanor, which was helpful. If Dean was going to get bent out of shape about it, then Becky knew she wouldn't be able to hold herself together at all. "Want to talk about it?"

She shook her head, "No, I just want to get very, very drunk. Can you walk me home?"

Dean nodded, "Sure, but you'll need a change of clothes if I'm taking you home, but don't worry. I think I have enough stuff in the lost and found to clothe you. You did wear panties right?"

She huffed out a laugh, a small one, but still a laugh, at his joke and knocked his shoulder. She just needed to forget for a couple hours.

Sasha was worried. Becky had really booked it out of the warehouse, and Sasha had no idea where she would go. Becky wouldn't go to work still in her gear, and other than their apartment, the hospital, or work Becky didn't really go anywhere. Sasha guessed she just had to wait for her to come back.

In the meantime, she went home to shower and wash the blood off of herself. After that she ordered take out for her and Becky, called the hospital to inquire about a change in Bayley's condition, there wasn't any, and she cleaned the apartment a little. She had just put Becky's take out in the fridge when the door was knocked on again. She frowned, thinking that the delivery guy had forgot something, and looked through the peephole.

She threw open the door when she saw the orange, and had to take a step back to take all of what was in front of her in. Becky looked positively trashed, wearing mismatched clothes, it looked like a rainbow threw up on her, and she was drunkenly leaning on the man who had apparently helped her back here. She almost looked like she was about to fall over, and Sasha easily dipped under her side to support her more. She, with the help of the man, helped Becky over to the couch and laid her down.

Sasha then looked at the stranger that was in her home, and when she recognized him from the television she almost squeaked in surprise. "You're Dean Ambrose!"

Dean widened his eyes and looked behind him, before looking down at himself, "Oh yeah, I am."

Sasha was still staring at him, "What- How- Why-" she took a breath, "How does Becky know you?"

Dean shrugged with a small smirk, "She doesn't really, she just got really drunk at my bar."

Sasha frowned. Dean Ambrose had a bar that Becky went to? "Well thanks for bringing her home. Did she say what was bothering her?"

Dean shook his head, "No, just asked for the strongest stuff we had."

Sasha nodded and tried not to get freaked out that Dean Ambrose was in her house. She saw him out, after actively not fangirling, and then went to stand by Becky who was mumbling to herself.

Sasha didn't regret for a second what she did. It saved Becky. She didn't feel anything from the moment her hand sliced through that thug like butter. If anyone was supposed to have a traumatic experience it was supposed to be her, but instead, Becky seemed to be taking it harder than she was. She wouldn't get any answers out of her like this though.

"Well, you sloppy drunk, we need to get some water in you and put you to bed."

She bent down to try to help Becky back up, but was pulled down into a bear hug. She fought for a moment before giving in and resting against Becky, a fond smile coming over her face. "Fine, but only for a few minutes. I don't want you to vomit on me."

The next morning they got up and, due to the killer hangover that Becky had, decided for forego the hero business that morning in favor of checking in on Bayley at the hospital. They were just going to enter the room when they overheard the voice of Finn Balor, judging by the accent.

"Well, that's the lead that we have, Paige, but we can't do much else until she makes a move."

"I don't care Finn. She almost killed Bayley, we need to find her and put her away forever."

"I'm sorry Paige, but that's all we have. We will keep looking."

They heard footsteps and instead of trying to look normal by staying where they were, a rookie mistake by some people, they just walked to the door like nothing happened and bumped into Finn. He jumped back startled but laughed it off and smiled at them. "Hello, ladies."

"Hi." They both echoed before they watched him make his way down the hallway. They looked at each other, already knowing that the other was thinking of the information that the Sentinels had on Charlotte. They'd been hunting for any information on her and had come up empty, but now they had an opportunity for answers.

Sasha and Becky strolled into the room and said hello to Paige who looked really jumpy. In fact, her eyes kept darting to the window behind her every ten seconds. Bayley was still unchanged, but for a little more color in her cheeks, and they sat there for an hour simply watching her chest move up and down. Surprisingly, before Sasha could come up with a plan to get the information out of Paige, it was the dark headed girl who broke the silence.

"So I'm guessing you are the other two I've been hearing about. Fire and Lightning." Sasha felt her heart stop. "Don't try to deny it. Bayley would always hint at others being affected like she was, and when Charlotte showed her power, I figured you two had them as well."

Sasha looked at Becky who was pale white. "Um, yeah…"

Paige looked between them for a second, her eyes narrowing. "Do you know where Charlotte is?"

"No." Sasha said, running a frustrated hand through her hair. "That's where we've been. We've been looking everywhere to try to get some answers."

Paige nodded, "I believe you. I just want her to pay. I want her in prison."

Becky spoke up in a quiet voice, "It would help if we knew some more information. Maybe the kind Finn was talking about?"

Paige glared at them. "Eavesdroppers."

Becky glared back, "I need to find out why this happened. Charlotte loved Bayley, and this doesn't make sense to any of us. I'm not going to try to manipulate it out of you, and I'm not gonna beat it out of you because Bayley liked you, but you should tell us so we can try to find her and bring her in."

Sasha felt Becky's quiet rage course through her as well and nodded along with what she said. Just the thought of what Charlotte did to Bayley made her irrevocably angry. She dug her nails into her skin to keep her mind on the conversation.

Paige sighed and looked at Bayley's face, and Sasha followed her. She looked so peaceful, like she was sleeping. Bayley probably didn't even have time to process how bad Charlotte now was. In her mind somewhere, Bayley still thought Charlotte was good, that Charlotte could be forgiven for what she had done, that Charlotte would be here waiting for her to wake up with the rest of them with an apology and an explanation. She was wrong.

Paige finally turned and looked both of them in their eyes. "Fine. All we know is that The Nature Boy's suit was damaged, and our technopath says that for any further plan to work, should they still be working together, he'll need parts. Parts cost money. We think they'll try to rob an armored truck. It seems like the best move. It'll be isolated and not as tricky as a bank, and with her powers she'll be able to punch through the metal easily."

Sasha looked at Bayley and frowned. That didn't sound quite right. Becky looked just as confused. Charlotte was smart, like crazy smart. They had witnessed some of her book choices over the years like The Art of War, and The Prince. Just going for a little robbery was not her style. They'd need to talk about this when they got home, but there was no need to let Paige in on that, especially not if they wanted answers for themselves, which they would never get if the Sentinels got to her first.

Becky finally looked contrite, "And about our heroing…"

Paige held up a hand. "Bayley didn't want to give you guys away. I respect her enough to keep it that way. Just don't make me, or her, regret it. Bring Charlotte in. Bayley will want answers."

Sasha and Becky looked at each other and nodded. It was time for to really go to work.

"These, with all of your assets, are the best plans you can come up with?" Charlotte looked at her dad with annoyance. They were in his office looking at his board of plans that he had contrived. All of them were small and useless in Charlotte's mind. If they wanted to take down the Sentinels, and get revenge for Reid, they'd need better thought out and grander schemes than this.

"I-I-" She held her hand up silencing her father.

"Reid would be so disappointed in you." She watched him flinch as if he had been struck. Good, he deserved this. He played around with the Sentinels instead of truly trying to end them, and did it in favor of not being there for her. "Not only are your plans useless, but you let Bayley damage your suit. Now all you have is the little suit that doesn't even have your sonic abilities. We need money to fix your failures as well as go forward with any of my plans."

He gulped and nodded, and Charlotte pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, we will just have to get some money then."

"I have a map of the routes for the armored cars-"

"No. They'll be expecting that. You haven't used the little suit before have you?"

"No." He replied. She liked when he talked as little as possible. It lessened the feeling of wanting to send him across the room with one smack of her crystal arm.

"Good. They don't know about it, and with me leading and you doing as I say we can pull off a bigger heist that they won't be prepared for. It'll make a statement, get us our money, and by the time they get there we will be gone." She turned to him and glared. "You will do as I say, right?"

"Yes, honey." He said, his eyes glancing down to her hand.

"Good. I loved Bayley and look what I did to her for the sake of payback. I don't even like you." And with that she walked off to think alone. They had a bank to rob.


	17. Chapter 17

Sasha watched her purple lightning dance on her fingers lazily as she sat on the couch. She had taken to doing this when she was bored, but right now she was simply waiting for Becky to get off work. It had been a rough couple of days. Becky had actually been sleeping less, and in turn, making Sasha sleep less because of her nightmares. If Sasha knew Becky would act like this when she killed someone to save her life, she'd have just let the guy shoot her… okay, that was a lie, but Becky kept waking her up, and Sasha needed her damn beauty sleep.

She sighed and got up to turn her new purchase on. She bought it soon after their talk with Paige about Charlotte. It was a police scanner. It would give her and Becky the frequencies and information that only the police were privy to which would help immensely in their search for Charlotte. She sank back into the couch as the hum of police chatter rang in the apartment. She began to play with sparks again and listened for any details about a girl who could turn her body into crystal. She was broken out of her haze by the lock turning on the front door.

Becky burst in with her usual gusto, and immediately vaulted the back of the couch, narrowly missing Sasha and completely missing the cushions of the couch. She landed on the floor with a groan. She looked up through her messy orange hair at Sasha who couldn't keep the fond smile off her face at the disheveled look and the oil still staining Becky's cheek. "Miss me?" Sasha asked, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice.

"Only every minute of every day, honey." Becky shot back with a grin. Sasha glared at her playfully. There was one time when there was a guy that wouldn't leave Sasha alone so Becky, without checking with Sasha first, had pretended to be her girlfriend. She had used god-awful nicknames, honey being the tamest of them, and she still used them sometimes around the apartment to embrace the domesticity that they had.

Sasha was about to respond when she picked up something on the police radio. A silent alarm had been triggered at a bank on Third Street, not too far from Sasha and Becky's apartment. The police were already scrambling because they were so spread out, expecting an attack on armored trucks, which means their response time would be slow. This sounded exactly like the type of thing that Charlotte would scheme up. Becky seemed to have the same train of thought, because she looked up at Sasha with a grim face.

Sasha bent down and helped Becky stand up; they stared at each other for a moment in the middle of their living room. This wasn't a task they were happy to do, but it needed to be done. And, Sasha thought, Charlotte deserved this after what she did to Bayley. Finally Becky smiled and hugged Sasha, surprising her a bit, but she hugged back. Becky mumbled into her shoulder, loud enough for Sasha to hear her. "We can do this, Sasha. Together. It'll be tough, but we owe it to Bayley."

Sasha simply nodded, returning a small smile, "Just go get changed, Spitfire. Bring some extra clothes in case we need to make a quick getaway."

Becky nodded, "You got it, boss." Then she ran off to go get changed in record time as Sasha grabbed her own jacket and her helmet. She stared at the visor of it before putting it on. If she had anything to say about it, this visor would be the last thing Charlotte would see as a free woman…

Becky and Sasha knew it was Charlotte before they even stepped foot in the bank. The bulletproof glass had been shattered. Chunks of the wall were taken out and pieces of furniture that had decorated the bank were thrown and imbedded in the walls. Becky and Sasha saw the Nature Boy first, in a small suit that gave him the ability to lift heavy things with ease and move about easily. They assumed Charlotte was somewhere in the back.

Becky helped Sasha climb up the walls of the outside of the bank, using the thrust from her flames to propel them up. Sasha had never been a fan of heights, but Becky had always felt at home on rooftops. They both peered through the skylight and got their first look at Charlotte. There wasn't any remorse or conflict on her face this time, instead she was barking orders out to the mechanical suit holding the Nature Boy as it moved around quickly pulling out bags of money from the vault.

Becky felt a wave of intense anger come from deep in her gut. Charlotte had been there friend. Why did she throw it all away for some weird guy in a suit? It was time to find out. Becky grabbed Sasha and broke through the glass skylight with a jet of flame before lowering both of them into the bank. They took a quick case of the building, and saw all the innocent people laying on the ground, but no dead bodies. Sasha grabbed Becky's arm, having thrown their duffle bag full of extra clothes under the nearest table.

"I can hold her off without your help for a few minutes. Get these people out. This battle could get destructive and no one innocents should get hurt today."

Becky nodded, "Just don't get the answers without me."

Paige snapped awake at about one in the afternoon from another nightmare. She began to immediately breathe easier when she saw Bayley still lying in bed where she should be. Paige sighed, no visible change in Bayley. Paige knew that Finn would be arriving soon so she could go and grab a shower and a change of clothes before coming back here.

She reached forward and gently pushed back Bayley's hair, like she always did before grabbing her hand between both of her own and bringing it to her lips. She pressed a gentle kiss to her knuckles, before pressing her forehead against their conjoined hand. That nightmare had really shook her, she had woken up to the wound reopened in Bayley's stomach and her cold, dead eyes staring up at her.

She squeezed Bayley's hand with her own to drive the thought out of her mind. The pleasant pressure of Bayley's hand squeezing her back made her smile, and the dark thoughts leave her mind completely. It took her several moments before she realized that Bayley had squeezed back. She almost jumped completely out of her seat and dropped her hand, but managed to calm herself to the point where she rationalized that this might be wishful thinking. She didn't want to disappoint herself, but she had to know. She used one hand this time and gave a squeeze to Bayley's hand, then held it limply in her own hand and waited.

She was almost ready to drop it and let more tears fall when Bayley squeezed back. Paige was sure this time. She kept holding Bayley's hand and yelled for the nurse, while pressing the nurse call button. After she'd alerted them and they were on their way, she bent down close to Bayley's face and smiled, letting happy tears fall even without seeing her eyes open yet, she knew that her Bayley was back.

"Welcome back, Bayley."

Becky had sent the last of the terrified patrons out of the bank as Sasha and the Nature Boy had begun to clash inside the bank. She knew Sasha was winning, by the amount of loud thumps that came from the suit as it hit the wall multiple times. She ran back inside and sent a fire blast at the suit causing it to fly back from the sheer force of it. Sasha nodded to her in thanks and they both regrouped. They finally saw the flash of platinum blonde hair that they had been waiting for.

Charlotte, looking grim but determined, strut out from the vault, numerous bags of money hanging from her shoulders. She dropped them next to the Nature Boy's fallen suit and stared at them. All three stared each other down, but no one was willing to speak first. Becky took the opportunity. "Charlotte. You know why we are here. We deserve to know why."

Charlotte turned her head to look completely at Becky. "We are the sum of all of our life's experiences. You were the little girl in Dublin who searched for something she could do. You had dreams of becoming this amazing inventor, but you settled for a lowly mechanics job and became homeless. Sasha over there had everyone taken from her, and couldn't sack up enough to make it on her own. She had to surround herself with people to replace those she lost. Like Eddie, and her real parents." Becky felt Sasha almost burst with electricity filled rage. "Bayley never had anything bad happen to her, but then these powers fall into her lap, and the first thing she does is to go and join the same group of people that I've hated for years. The same group of people that ruined my life."

Becky glared, "Bayley was just trying to do good. She was trying to stop that sack of shit from hurting innocent people." She said pointing to the Nature Boy. "She didn't deserve her big sister to stab her through the stomach and leave her for dead."

Charlotte glared right back at Becky, "I was a big sister, but that group of 'heroes' took that away from me with their wanton use of their powers that cause destruction throughout the city. They killed Reid. They made this," she gestured to the suit that lay next to her, "and now I'm trying to make them pay. Bayley chose her side, and apparently, you both have as well."

"Your brother dying can't be the only reason, Charlotte." Becky gestured, her anger growing. "If that's the only reason, then you were never a good person to begin with, and you're just a hateful old shrew that threw away your friends. Your family."

Charlotte seemed to grin at the irony. "Funny you should mention family." She gestured to the suit and the cockpit of it opened. "Ladies, meet my dad."

Becky's eyes widened as the old man was staring at them blankly. "You'll have to forgive him," Charlotte continued, "He isn't in much of a talking mood. You see, he was causing wanton destruction as well. He was hurting innocent people. I'm only after the heroes that caused my brother's death, and caused my father to become this sad excuse of an individual." The Nature Boy's head dropped in shame. "So he's under new management."

It took Becky a little while to recover, but she stood resolute, her hair catching fire as she stared down Charlotte through her goggles. "Friends are the family you choose. And you threw that away."

Charlotte gave them both the most hateful look they had ever seen her give anyone. "Spoken by two girls with no family left."

Becky didn't have time to even move as Sasha let forth an animalistic, rage-filled scream and shot electricity at Charlotte.

Paige waited impatiently for Bayley to open her eyes. The nurses and doctors had been in to check on her minutes ago and said that she was going to wake up at any moment. Paige had a million things running through her mind. What would Bayley remember? Should she ask her what she remembered from her little confession time? Were there any side effects from Finn's dark magic helping to heal her?

But she bit her tongue to keep herself in the moment as the pupils behind Bayley's eyeballs began to stir. Paige held her breath as they finally flickered open. She squinted up at the lights, and then slowly turned her head to the dark headed girl. Paige almost broke down as their eyes connected.

Bayley frowned at her, and for a fleeting moment Paige feared that she didn't recognize her, but Bayley just pursed her lips. "When was the last time you got a good sleep, Paige? You look exhausted." She said with obvious worry and displeasure that could be heard even with her voice raspy from disuse.

Paige let out a wet laugh, as the tears did in fact begin to fall. Of course Bayley would think about other people first thing after waking up from a coma. "Way too long. I couldn't leave you, Bayley." She dropped from her chair to her knees beside the bed. She came close to Bayley, their eyes meeting. Paige sucked in a breath. "I am so sorry for what I said. For what I did. You mean so much to me Bayley, I-"

"You love me." Bayley searched her eyes with her own brown ones. They showed no hint of haziness from drugs, but had complete clarity in them.

Paige bit her lip, more tears falling. She couldn't say anything so she just nodded.

Bayley reached the hand that wasn't being clutched by Paige in a death grip, to smooth back Paige hair. Her voice was soft as she spoke back to her. "You should have told me. We wouldn't have had to go through all this."

Paige finally found her voice, "I didn't want to ruin our friendship. You mean the world to me Bayley, and I wanted you in my life so bad, but I thought that I could get over this crush without you living there, but my life was so empty without you. I just-"

Bayley didn't let her finish her stammering apology, as she pulled Paige's head in for a kiss. Paige felt Bayley's lips press softly against her own, and she melted into it immediately. Her eyes fluttered shut and she pressed forward into Bayley's lips of her own free will now, savoring how it felt. It was by no means the kiss she had imagined in her fantasies. Bayley's lips were chapped from disuse, they both looked like a mess, and Paige was crying. They were not just getting back from a date, but instead in a hospital. But Paige couldn't help but think it was perfect.

Bayley didn't pull back, but slowly just let their lips unseal from one another. They both stayed close, now looking into each other's eyes. Bayley pressed her forehead against Paige's some of her own tears falling. "I love you, Paige. I have for so long."

Paige squeezed Bayley's hand as they reveled in their moment together. After quite a few minutes like this, Paige finally sat back in her chair, her hand not leaving Bayley's. She pulled the chair closer and began fretting over Bayley for the tiniest reason.

Bayley remained quite still, and finally looked over at Paige. "What happened? Why did Charlotte…" She bit her lip, tears coming to her eyes. "Where are Becky and Sasha?"

Paige sighed, her thumb stroking over the top of Bayley's hand. "We don't know why Charlotte did what she did, but we've been trying to find her. So have your friends. They were here a lot, checking on you, but they got information from me to try to get answers from Charlotte."

Bayley seemed to relax, knowing that Sasha and Becky had been there to see her, but still looked worried about Charlotte. "I looked in her eyes Paige. She seemed shocked to have done what she did. Even a little scared, but before that it was like looking into the eyes of a totally different person. So overcome with grief and rage."

Paige growled, "She did this to you. I don't care what her reasoning was. I'm putting her away for good, when I get my hands on her."

Bayley gave her a soft smile. "And I love you even more for it, but I need answers. The four of us were the closest friends could be. She was the big sister that I always wanted." Bayley sighed sadly.

Paige leaned forward and pressed her lips to Bayley's again, hating to see her girl so sad. "Well," She said, seeing Bayley light up again after the kiss. Already being so energetic and bubbly so soon after a coma. "You'll be out of here soon enough and we can get answers together."

Bayley squeezed Paige's hand and grinned. "Girlfriend crime fighting duo. That has a nice ring to it don't you think." Paige grinned, it sounded perfect.

Charlotte instantly turned her right arm to crystal and batted the electricity into the wall. She looked back at them, and Becky thought she saw a flicker of remorse in her face in that moment, but if it was there it was quickly taken away as Charlotte moved into a fighting stance, her head turning to talk to The Nature Boy. "Dad, take the money and go home. I'll catch up." He nodded and snatched them up before flying through the skylight that they had entered through. She turned back to them. "If you two insist on interfering on your little Bayley's behalf, then come at me. I'll finish you two off, then head to the hospital and show her and her little girlfriend that there is a price to pay for ruining innocent people's lives."

Becky and Sasha moved at the same time, Becky to the left and Sasha to the right. They had been at this for a solid couple of months and knew each other's style pretty well. Becky threw a punch at Charlotte's gut at the same time that Sasha threw one at her face. Charlotte turned completely to crystal, and the padding in Becky's glove was the only thing that saved her from a broken hand.

Charlotte went on the attack, her body becoming normal, except her arm, and throwing a piercing strike at Sasha's heart. Becky dropped into a crouch and tried to swipe Charlotte's legs out from under her, but Charlotte did a handspring and dodged Becky's leg, but she didn't count on Becky adding a jet of flame with her kick and Charlotte stumbled as the heat and pain hit her arms.

Sasha reacted perfectly and sent a huge bolt of lighting that sent the stunned Charlotte into the wall. Becky, sensing that this might be their one opportunity to subdue Charlotte, rushed forward, but was backhanded by a crystal arm that sent her flying and shattering through a desk.

Becky felt dizzy as she tried to shake the cobwebs out of her mind and saw the fuzzy silhouette of Sasha and Charlotte duking it out. Charlotte got a few punches in, but Sasha was in an absolute rage. Charlotte couldn't risk turning her whole body to crystal and not being able to move, as she continued to dodge Sasha's attack. There was no way that Sasha had not realized that Charlotte's ability had a limit if Becky had. Becky was pretty smart on the fly, but Sasha was on a whole other level.

Sasha finally hit Charlotte right in the stomach with a large lightning-imbued punch, which sent Charlotte back into the wall, denting the wall. Becky shakily stood and tried to find her footing as she saw Charlotte, clearly concussed, try to remember where she was. It was over. They had beaten her. Now all they had to do was tie her down and wait for the police. She looked at Sasha, but frowned and tried to shake her head to dispel the rest of the cobwebs from her nasty fall. Sasha still looked enraged, stomping towards Charlotte. Becky pushed herself to move closer.

Bayley smiled as Finn came through the door, doing a double take when he saw her eyes open. Then he did a triple take when he saw Paige and her holding hands. It was all quite humorous to see the demon king freaking out on behalf of his friend's romantic life, but Bayley was happy to see him. He asked the typical questions one would expect to know after someone woke up from a coma, but Bayley couldn't really answer him. Despite everything, she was really tired and really content. All she really wanted to do was curl up on the couch with Paige and fall asleep. Then she wanted to find Charlotte and see if she was okay.

Finn grew serious though. He turned to Paige and said, "I completed my research about how I was able to heal Bayley. You were worried about side-effects."

Bayley perked up. She hadn't heard how Finn had healed her, just that he had done so with his dark magic.

"Well, it wasn't as bad as I originally thought. There isn't any demon lurking inside her like you were worried about Paige." Bayley felt the tension drain out of Paige through their connected hands. "However, her and I are connected now. We will feel each other's emotions. I've had practice with controlling my own, so Bayley's might not effect me, but if I were to ever turn over to the Demon, Bayley would become irritable, cranky, and downright pissed off."

Bayley looked up at Finn with a smile, "I don't really do pissed off."

Finn nodded his head with a small smile. "I know, which is why I'm warning you. It shouldn't affect your day to day life, but as long as you know that this is the reason for your feelings, you should be able to work on controlling it when it does happen."

Bayley nodded, reaching to grab Finn's hand off of his lap. "Thank you. No matter the side-effects, you saved my life."

Finn smiled, "You're one of us Bayley. Paige's emotions were so volatile at the time that they made a great catalyst for the spell. You should be thanking her."

Bayley grinned dopily, "Oh, trust me, I will."

Finn scrunched his nose. "Okay, that's my queue to leave." Bayley turned to see Paige blushing, making her giggle. Finn gave them one final look before disappearing through the wall.

Bayley reached her hands up to Paige's face and stroked her thumb over her cheek. Paige immediately pushed back into her hand, her eyes closing serenely. "I want to go home."

Paige nodded, "I'll see what I can do about that."

Becky gripped the teller station as she brought herself back in view of both Sasha and Charlotte. Charlotte was slumped on the floor, bleeding lazing from her hairline. Sasha stood over her, looking down with what Becky could only describe as betrayal and rage.

Charlotte coughed. "You have to be willing to sacrifice the things most important to you if you want to change the world. I had to give up my true family so I could bring down the people that are killing this world. But you, Sasha, you are so full of hate and anger." She swallowed thickly. "I can see it in your eyes. You want to kill me."

Sasha just stared down at Charlotte saying nothing, as Becky tried to move closer. Charlotte continued, "You blame me for tearing the little world you made for yourself apart. I don't blame you for thinking that. It's true. But I'd do it again and again if it meant the Sentinels cease to exist. Just like you'd do anything, including stab us in the back if it meant getting Eddie back."

Becky watched as Sasha's fist began to shake. Charlotte did not heed it. "I'm guilty, and once my work is done, I'll deserve whatever punishment I get. But here's your one chance, Sasha. You take me out, and you get your revenge. Then I won't have to live with the fact that I had to give up my family to seek out my own revenge. So do it, Sasha. Sacrifice your humanity for what you want. Kill me. DO IT!"

Becky felt tears streaming down her face, at the broken sound of Charlotte's voice. She tried to move her feet through the rubble, but her eyes landed on a picture. The same picture that both Sasha and Becky had in their apartment. It was the four of them together, smiling happily. She bent down to pick it up. Charlotte must have had it, but it had fallen out.

She still looked at Sasha standing over Charlotte. She hadn't said a word yet; her fist was still shaking in anger. She made it to Sasha just as the sparks began to dance across her fingers. "Sasha!" Becky put her own body between Sasha and Charlotte, the picture held between her thumb and forefinger, right in front of Sasha's face. "She had this with her Sasha. She's still Charlotte."

Sasha's eyes scanned the picture as the electricity died on her hands. Becky was getting through to her. "We promised Bayley we wouldn't hurt her. We promised not to even blame her. When Bayley wakes up, she deserves to see Charlotte for herself."

Sasha swallowed, her eyes continuing to flick back and forth on the picture. Becky began to relax as Sasha lost a lot of the tension throughout her body. Finally Sasha closed her eyes, and Becky let the picture fall to the ground. She turned around to look at Charlotte herself, able to take in the rivers of shed tears down her face, mixing with the blood from her forehead. She looked at Becky with the most broken look Becky had seen in a person.

Becky didn't have time to say anything, because Charlotte's eyes widened, and Becky heard Sasha whisper from behind her. "I'm sorry, Becky." She was shoved to the side as Sasha charged at Charlotte, her open palm covered in her sinister magenta electricity. Charlotte's eyes closed and a small smile appeared on her lips, as she tilted her head back waiting for the final blow. Becky screamed, trying to send a jet of harmless heat at Sasha to push her off course, but it wouldn't connect in time.

But before Sasha's deathblow could connect she was hit off course by a golden energy beam. Becky didn't have time to process as she was hit by one too sending her back into a nearby wall. She rose to her feet, her haste brought on by panic of what she had just been about to witness. She saw Sasha pushing some office supplies and pieces of broke chair off of her as she stood up. In the middle of the room, stood a human shaped creature. His face was painted, a large golden star in the middle of his white face paint. He had a full body suit on colored black and gold. His head was shaved, and his irises were red.

He hissed at them. "I am StarDUST. I have come to avenge my father! You three will pay for allowing him to die!" He looked around, twitched where he stood and began muttering loudly to himself. "There were three, now only two. That's fine. Kill these two now, get the other two later. Yes, good plan. Good plan."

Becky searched around. Stardust was right, the dent in the wall where Charlotte had been sitting was empty now. Becky even looked near the ground there, as the picture she had found had been snatched off the ground as well. Becky didn't know how to feel about her former friend's escape, but she did know she was glad she wasn't dead.

Becky could feel her hair stand on end as Sasha stood up, electricity moved along her body in arcs. Becky stood up, ready to take on this new guy. "Remember Sasha, this is Dusty's son. We need to capture him and get him to his brother." Becky waited for Sasha to respond, but didn't get anything. She looked over and saw Sasha was shaking, her eyes barely visible through the visor, but even from here Becky could see the rage.

"You let her get away." Sasha stated simply.

Stardust twitched again, "It's fine. I'll kill you now, and her later."

"I had her. I had her and you let her get away!" Sasha accused, more electricity flying out in every direction. Becky felt a couple static jolts in her arm.

Stardust tilted his head. "Kill you first then." He moved to shoot more energy beams out of his gloves, but was interrupted as Sasha's lightning struck him, like a bolt from the heavens. He jolted like a rag doll in place, as the lightning hit him. He fell to his knees, his entire body smoking as Sasha began to advance on him.

"K-kill you…" He said feebly. Sasha hit him with another jolt of electricity. He put his hand down to stop his fall as he blindly shot out an energy beam that Sasha spun and dodged, before hitting him again. He whimpered pitifully on his knees. A small sob of "Daddy" came from his charred lips.

Sasha had now reached him and stood over him. "YOU LET HER GET AWAY!" She brought both of her hands to his temples and with one final jolt to his system, his eyes rolled back in his head, a strangled scream fell from his lips, and blood streamed out of his ears. He fell over dead.

Becky felt more tears stream down her face. That wasn't a fight. That wasn't killing as a last resort. That was an execution. She brought a shaking hand to cover her mouth. After what felt like hours, but had only been a few seconds Becky stumbled forward. She feebly checked for a pulse, knowing she'd find none. "Wha- Why-" she couldn't even begin to find words for this.

She couldn't even look at Sasha. She couldn't pull her eyes away from the body that she had left malformed on the marble floor. It wasn't until she heard Sasha speak that she could pull her eyes away from what had once been Stardust. "You let her get away too, Becky." She heard a hateful voice come out of Sasha that had never been addressed to her.

Becky turned around to reply but saw only pink before she felt all her muscles contract and her mind go black.

Paige enjoyed having Bayley's arm around her shoulder, but the girl weighed quite a bit. Paige knows she didn't used to weigh this much and she hadn't put on any weight, so it must have been the super powers that made her body more dense. She struggled to help the sleepy Bayley to the sign out sheet. The doctors had been loathe to let her go home this soon after waking up, but Paige had pulled a few strings, and they had a med room in the tower if they needed one, so she was allowed to go with her.

Bayley signed out of the hospital and smiled at Paige. "You know, once I'm feeling back to about seventy percent, you have to take me on a date."

Paige laughed, blushing a little bit. "Oh yeah? I have to?"

Bayley nodded sagely, "Of course. I rarely kiss at the end of the first date, let alone before it's even happened. You should feel lucky."

Paige pressed her forehead into the Bayley's neck and giggled, ugh she never giggled, what was this girl doing to her? "Well as long as you promise I can still kiss you in the meantime, I'll take you out on a million dates."

Bayley seemed to think it over before smiling and nodding. "Fine, but you also have to cuddle with me until I'm better too."

Paige nodded, before kissing Bayley, leaving the girl smiling like a fool. "Deal."

Bayley was about to respond, until the doors of the hospital opened and a whole group of paramedics rushed in around a gurney. Bayley frowned and turned her attention to them. She caught a glimpse of the gurney and paled. "Becky?!"

Paige whirled around, and seeing that it was indeed the fire-haired girl on the gurney, dressed in normal street clothes and not her goggles and bandana. She looked dirt specked, with dried blood coming out of her ears. Some of her fiery orange hair had died near her temples and reverted back to brown.

She pulled one of the paramedics who had rushed in and stopped in the waiting room by his collar. She dragged him over to Bayley, who looked like she was about to sprint after the gurney despite her injuries. Paige glared at the man. "Tell me what happened."

He looked a little nervous, most likely recognizing Paige as Shimmer. "Bank heist by the Nature Boy and that crystal girl. The two new vigilantes came in to fight her and get the hostages out. Some new guy came in and the electric one killed him and this girl must have gotten in the middle of it. She was the only civilian still inside the bank. She flatlined twice in the ambulance. They don't know if she'll make it."

Paige let the man go, as she spun around just in time to have Bayley tackle her in only a slightly painful hug, tears already marring her beautiful face. Becky had electrical burns which means Sasha hurt her. But was it an accident or did the Boss have intention behind it. Paige kissed Bayley on the top of the head as she cried into her shoulder. She needed to find out what the hell happened. For Bayley.


	18. Chapter 18

Becky fluttered her eyes open and squinted at the bright lights above her. She tried to move her arm to shield her eyes from the aggressive lights, but found that her arm was not answering her call as quickly as normal. She groaned and tried to roll, but something in that same arm was forcing her to stay in position. She finally fully opened her eyes and tried to sit up. When she had finally managed to do so, she slowly surveyed the white room. Her head hurt and her throat was dry, how long had she been out? It felt like the worst hangover of her life. Her legs felt sore and like dead weight. She looked down at her arm and saw the needles in it hooking her up to a nearby machine.

Her eyes finally drifted to the side, seeing the only dark spot in the room. Bayley was sitting there reading a magazine, completely unaware that Becky had woken up. Becky took a moment to revel in the fact that Bayley was awake. Last she remembered her childish friend was in a coma with no signs of coming out. Then her eyes widened as the possible implications of that came rushing back. How long had she been out?

"Bayley, you're awake." Her voice sounded raspy and unused even to her. She saw Bayley's head snap up and the magazine go flying across the room.

"Becky!" Becky winced as her head throbbed. Bayley gave her an extremely gentle hug, and sat back looking amazed that she had woken up. That probably didn't mean good things.

"What happened? How long have I been out?"

Bayley slumped back into her chair, but still held Becky's hand in her strong grip. Becky was still in a daze, so having Bayley anchoring her was helping a ton. Bayley sighed, "You've been in a coma for a month. You beat me by a couple days." She smiled wryly.

Becky felt her heart begin to beat faster, as the machine beeped in time, "An entire month!?"

Bayley nodded, "Yeah. I woke up a couple hours before they brought you in," Bayley looked her in the eyes and Becky saw the hurt and pain, "with electrical burns." Becky saw a tear slip out of Bayley's eyes and felt awful for making her friend worry, but that was before everything flashed before her eyes in one single moment.

Sasha's look of hate, the crackle of electricity in her ears, and her muscles locking up before everything went black. She came back to reality and let out a whimper that seemed to say everything to Bayley. She wrapped an arm around Becky's shoulders and pulled her into the crook of her neck. Becky felt tears fall against her friend's shirt, but couldn't bring herself to apologize. Bayley ran fingers through her hair and shushed her soothingly as she cried.

Sasha and her had been friends, roommates, maybe even something a little more had Becky gotten her way. But Sasha had almost killed her. Sasha had almost made the conscious choice to end Becky's life. Becky couldn't tell whether that made her more angry or more sad.

Finally after some time, Becky picked herself back up off of Bayley and tried her best to compose herself. Bayley didn't give her an opportunity. Seeming to want to get everything out in the open so Becky could process it, Bayley blurted out, "You flatlined twice, Becky. You died and came back twice."

Becky sat there staring straight ahead for several minutes. Bayley let her have time to collect her thoughts. She thought about every single moment that Sasha and her had spent together. Sasha was her best friend. Her bestest friend. They did everything with and for each other. Sasha was Becky's Sasha, and no one else's. But that same Sasha had tried to kill her. Did kill her. Becky finally turned to Bayley. She had already come to terms with this, but hearing how Sasha had actually killed her, even if it was for a little bit, made the thought worth repeating.

"What happened to Sasha?" Her throat was getting better but it still had that scratchiness to it that gave away how sore it was.

Bayley ran a hand through her ponytail, pulling it down to play with it while she talked. "She's been doing things her way since you came in. She hasn't been to see you. She's racked up about a hundred bodies in the last month. Most of them being young gangbangers in the heart of the city, but a few innocents have been caught in the crossfire." Becky felt the tears starting to sting her eyes again. "She's also got a new partner. Two actually." Becky gave Bayley a curious glance, encouraging her to go on no matter how much it might hurt. "We are finding bodies in the same place with bullet holes in them as well as knife wounds. We think she's working with Punk and Duality."

Becky furrowed her brow, "Duality as in the old Sentinel member?"

Her friend nodded, grimly, "AJ Lee."

Becky could feel herself pale, "Shit… I can't believe Sasha would do this." She gave a desperate look at Bayley, "Please tell me there's some good news since I was out, I'll take anything."

She saw her friend sit back and blush deeply, "Uh, me and Paige are, um, dating."

Becky tried her best to grin; it was all she could do to keep from thinking about the sadness and rage she had building in her over Sasha. "Well, nice job bagging that one, eh? How is it going?"

The bubbly personality of her friend came back as she perked up, apparently excited to talk about her girlfriend. "It's going really good. We've been on four dates already, and we've been fighting bad guys together. She's even been helping me look for Charlotte."

Simply the utterance of Charlotte's name caused Becky's mood to drop again, which caused Bayley to frown at herself. "Becky, what happened at the bank?"

Becky gripped her sheets in her fingers, so tight that she would probably still cause her palms to bleed, even with the sheet between it and her nails. She breathed deeply. "Everything was going okay. We got an explanation out of Charlotte, had her on the ropes. Even beat her in a fight. But then Sasha tried to kill her. I stopped her for a second, but she went to do it anyway, but then Dusty's son came to kill all of us."

Bayley nodded, "We found him at the bank. Goldust was a wreck. That was the last of his family."

The guilt hit her as Stardust's pained face appeared in her mind again. Becky tried to continue, feeling horrible for not stopping his death. "Charlotte escaped because of his distraction and Sasha lost it. She didn't kill him, Bayley. She executed him."

The other girl's eyebrows shot up at this. They both knew that wasn't the Sasha they had come to know. Becky plowed on into the story. "I went over to check for a pulse, but found none and then she told me it was my fault Charlotte had escaped too. Then all I saw was pink and then I blacked out."

They both sat there for a moment in silence, Bayley processing and adding Becky's tale of events to what she knew from the crime scene investigation they had done. Becky just kept thinking about the hate in Sasha's voice directed at her. Finally Bayley broke the silence timidly.

"Wha- What did Charlotte say? Why did she attack me? Why did she help the Nature Boy?"

Becky sighed at the sad curiosity that was in Bayley's eyes. "The Nature Boy is her dad, Bayley. He became that way after Reid died. He neglected Charlotte for revenge, but now Charlotte has taken to ordering him around to get real revenge for her brother. She says the Sentinels ruin innocent people's lives and you chose your side when you joined them. She wants to kill all of you."

Bayley let a tear slip out of her eye, "I was only trying to help…"

Becky reached over gingerly to stroke the younger girl's face. "I know, sweetie. That's what I said."

The brunette shook her head, her ponytail bouncing. "No, I gotta find Charlotte myself. I'll bring her back. I know she's still in their somewhere."

Becky thought about the picture that Charlotte still had with her in the bank. "I think you might be right, Bayley, but she has so much anger, you will have to work for it. And there's no guarantee that it'll work before she hurts a lot of people, maybe even Paige."

The bubbly side of Bayley dropped completely at the thought of Paige getting hurt, but she got a determined gleam in her eyes. "I'll work for it harder than I've worked for anything ever!" Her outburst left the room in silence after it, with Becky not knowing what to say.

Both girls let the silence hang between them until Bayley broke it. "I wish we never got these powers. They've ruined everything the four of us built together."

Becky was about to nod in agreement, but before she did she actually thought about the state of their lives at this moment. Bayley was in a loving relationship with someone she was meant to be with. Sasha was doing what she wanted; no matter if it was wrong, it was something she believed in. Charlotte was finding a catharsis for her brother's death, something that she hadn't had before. And Becky had finally found a purpose. Sure, the powers had caused them to go their separate ways, but they had just amplified the people that they were inside.

"I don't know, Bayley. I think that to regret these powers is to throw away all the good we've done with them. Sasha and Charlotte might be a little lost, but if there is anyone who can bring us together again, it's you."

Bayley squeezed Becky's hand with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. Bayley was always so emotive that anyone could tell what she was thinking. "You really think so? You'd work with Sasha again?"

Becky nodded, "As much as I want to hate her she's… Sasha." Becky had stopped herself from adding 'my', but from the look on Bayley's face, Becky didn't think she did a good job of hiding what she meant. "Don't get me wrong, its now going to be my life's mission to make her life hell and to put her away for all the murders she has already committed, but I'm not sinking to her level."

Bayley nodded, "I'll take care of Charlotte, you go after Sasha. We'll bring them back because I think you are capable of bringing us back to where we were too."

Both girls smiled at one another, but Bayley frowned. "By the way, I just thought you should know that Sasha might not be as far gone as you think."

Becky frowned, the hand that was not hooked up to machines made it's way through her hair, recently washed, most likely thanks to Bayley, "What makes you say that?"

"You came in with your civilian clothes on. No masks or anything. She apparently still cares enough to not let your identity get out. Might want to ask her about that when you find her."

Becky for the first realized what a problem it would have been if she had been admitted to the hospital with her mask on. That was a curious situation that she'd make sure to bring up with Sasha. "What about the Sentinels? This new change has to affect their view of vigilantes. I'll probably be hunted along with Sasha."

The other girl shook her head. "Paige and I will keep them off of you. You worry about Sasha and let us worry about everyone else."

The fire imbued girl nodded. "Now, when can I get out of here? I'm sure I have to start looking for a new job."

Bayley chuckled, while she hit the nurse call button so they could get started on processing her out. "No, I had a little chat with Baron. He was annoyed and didn't want to show how worried he was, but said you were on paid leave until you woke up. Then he'll use your sick days and make you work some overtime to make up for it. "

She felt herself chuckle fondly, "That sounds like Baron." Becky could hear the scurrying outside in the hall that meant the nurses were almost there to begin tests. Bayley grabbed her arm and brought her lips close to her ears. "And don't think we aren't talking about how you know Dean Ambrose. He was here visiting you a couple times, and there is no way you are getting out of that story."

Becky grinned at Bayley, finally feeling semi back to normal. She knew that when she made it home to her and Sasha's old apartment she'd likely bawl her eyes out over the next couple of days, eat through a carton of ice cream, and break some of Sasha's things. Today, however, she still had a great friend in Bayley, and she was going to cherish that with all her strength.


	19. Chapter 19

Paige loved when a plan came together. It had been date night tonight with Bayley and it had been absolutely lovely. Bayley had wanted the opportunity to take Paige out for once, and it had been an incredibly fun night. Bayley had shown her an arcade on the other side of the city that Paige hadn't known about. They had out-danced each other in Dance Women's Revolution and Paige had pretended to be really bad at a shooting game so Bayley would come behind her and press against her to help. Paige had subtly been shifting her hips the entire time which was why they had booked it back home and were making out on their couch in front of the television right now. Paige loved living with her girlfriend.

She felt Bayley's phone vibrate against her leg and ignored it, but when it persisted and Bayley pulled away from her, Paige groaned. "C'mon, B, it can't be that important."

She gave Paige a peck on the lips, "If it's not then it won't take long to see and then get back to what we were doing." She scanned her phone and then sat bolt upright, almost hitting Paige in the head. "Oh my God!"

Paige looked at her wide-eyed, "What is it?"

Bayley got a calm look on her face, eyes smoldering which stood out to Paige because of the way Bayley had done her make up tonight. Paige knew her well enough to know that Bayley was furious but trying to keep it together and calm down. She turned to look at Paige and showed her the phone. "Becky checked herself and walked home on her own! She's injured! I'm going to kill her!"

Paige sat up and began to fix her hair, "Well I suppose that's a good reason for the pause at least. Let's go see Becky. You can tell her how irresponsible she is and I can watch."

Bayley nodded and stood up to collect her coat, but Paige pulled her back into her arms to give her a searing kiss that left even Paige herself a little light-headed. "After we do that, we are coming back and continuing this."

Bayley, her cheeks scarlet, nodded with a dazed look on her face. "Sounds like a plan. I'll be all worked up from lecturing her."

Paige began to usher her out the door, groaning, "Uh, I love when you get all mother hen on someone."

Bayley turned back to raise her eyebrow at Paige while opening the door. "Don't make it weird."

"Sorry."

Becky clenched her fists and forced herself to push open the door to her and Sasha's old place. She took a look inside. The living room looked unchanged. All the furniture they'd bought together was still in its proper place. It looked like Sasha was just at work and would be home later tonight, even though Becky knew that wasn't true. The sting of her betrayal hitting her full force again, but she forced herself to walk to Sasha's room and throw open the door.

She expected her to sitting at her desk going over fashion pictures and marking down the ones she wanted for the boutique, but it was cold and empty. All of Sasha's stuff was gone. All the clothes, all the mannequins, and all the things that made this room Sasha's. Becky felt her knees give out and she sank to the floor, not being able to step over the threshold into her room. The worst part was when she noticed that the only things that were left, other than the bed sheets were the pictures of her and Sasha as well as all four of them together. One had even been knocked to the floor and shattered.

Becky slowly reached out to turn the picture over and almost dropped it when she realized which one it was. It was a film roll of her and Sasha at the fair. They were grinning in the photo booth and doing some silly poses that Sasha had insisted that she hated, but did anyway. Becky didn't even know that Sasha had a copy of this, let alone that she framed it and apparently kept it away from Becky's sight. This day was one of the most important days of Becky's life. This is when she realized how she felt about Sasha, evident by the way that she was blushing in one of the pictures when Sasha had kissed her cheek.

She had never even considered making that crush a reality, knowing that Sasha wouldn't return her advances in the first place, and then knowing that if she still confessed just to get it out in the open, it'd make things slightly weird between them and their friendship was way more important than a silly crush. Silly crush might be the wrong way to put it considering it persisted for a couple years now. And now that whole mess was even worse because Sasha had almost killed her. Did kill her, Becky thought.

She left the photo in the entryway, not being able to remove it from the room, and went to check her own room. She pushed open the door and saw that her room had remained messy in her absence. Not that she expected Sasha to clean it, especially now. The duffle bag filled with her vigilante suit was tossed on her bed as if it had been thrown there in a rush, which she supposed, it probably had.

She looked inside the duffle and confirmed that all of her gear was in there. While the duffle bag had been thrown into the room half hazardly, the gear inside had not only been folded neatly in the bag, but had been washed and scrubbed of all dirt and grime from the fight with Charlotte and the blood when she was injured by Sasha. Becky felt tears finally prick her eyes and begin to cascade down her face as she sat on her bed, her head in her hands. She sobbed, finally being allowing all the emotions to hit from the fact that her friend, the woman she quite possibly loved, had turned her back on her and tried to end her life.

She heard footsteps in the living room. Figuring it was Bayley she wiped at her eyes, trying to remove the tear tracks and began to make her way along the hallway. "Bayley, if you're here to lecture me, I-" she stopped when she registered a man in a suit with a red tie standing in the middle of her living room, holding the picture frame that Becky had not been able to bring out of Sasha's room.

The man turned over, his buzz cut showing some wrinkles in his forehead and his suit doing nothing to hide the packed muscles under it. He was still looking at the picture, not even having looked at Becky since she stopped talking.

"Who the hell are you?" She didn't know what kind of thief robbed people in a nice suit, but she was gonna fry this guy if he didn't explain to her what exactly he thought he was doing coming into their apartment and touching their stuff.

He finally flipped his gaze to her and smiled. It wasn't a comforting thing, but instead came off as threatening, maybe even menacing. "Becky Lynch. Spitfire. Any preference to what I call you?" Before Becky could even respond, he continued. "No? Good. Ms. Lynch my name is Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and I have a proposition for you."


	20. Chapter 20

"Miss Lynch my name is Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and I have a proposition for you."

Becky glared at the man, "I certainly hope part of it is you explaining how you got into my place, and another part is you leaving it."

He held his hands up, his small smirk never leaving his face, "I'll leave, but you should listen to what I have to say." Becky didn't feel right about this guy, but nodded for him to go on. "I noticed that you and your… partner are going through a bit of a rough patch."

Becky felt her anger flare up at how nonchalant he sounded. "Yeah, if almost killing me is what you consider rough."

Hunter didn't even blink at her back talk. "I suppose that makes you pretty angry. Good, you'll need to be."

She frowned, "Wanna get to the point here or do I need to get you a giant tissue so you can keep spraying shit all over the place."

She grinned internally as he touched his nose subconsciously finally seeming angry. "Very well. I represent The Sentinels and am their liaison to the government of the United States." Becky paused, this guy represented the people that Bayley and Paige worked for? "Sasha Banks is killing a lot of people since she snapped. The Sentinels have more pressing matters to worry about than some pink haired girl with daddy issues."

"It's magenta." Becky interrupted without thinking. "Seriously, I get that you represent my friends in the Sentinels, but why are you here? Come to arrest me for being a vigilante?"

He shook his head, "Not in the slightest, Ms. Lynch. You are much too valuable to waste away in jail. The Sentinels cannot deal with Sasha Banks the way we need to. It would look bad in the press. Which is why I want you to deal with Ms. Banks."

She rolled her eyes, "Well I was gonna go get a jump on that. Are you here to tell me you have some special cell for her that negates her powers or something?"

Hunter chuckled, "Oh if only the world worked out that way. No, you misunderstand. I want you to kill Sasha Banks."

Becky's heart stopped. Kill Sasha? She was angry with her, wrecked from her betrayal, but she wouldn't do something like that, would she? She thought about how Sasha had turned her hateful eyes on Becky, how she had left the picture smashed on her floor like Becky had meant nothing to her. She began to shake in anger and pain before remembering that Sasha had called the ambulance after it had happened, and how her gear sat folded in the duffle bag that Sasha had left in her room. She glanced up at Hunter and tried to remain intimidating, if she was in the first place.

"And why should I do that?"

He smirked, "Well, it's quite obvious Ms. Lynch. You do this for me; you'll have your revenge. Plus, I can guarantee that you can join your only remaining friend Bayley on the Sentinels. You can finally replace this little family that has fallen apart."

"And you don't get the bad press of having a Sentinel kill her."

He gave her a wry smile and a little shrug, "Not as dumb as you look. I never said that I wouldn't get anything out of it."

It did sound tempting. She could be by Bayley and make sure nothing happened to her last remaining friend from her old life. She could help the entire world. Then she began to think about all the people in the slums of the city who would be subject to Sasha's way of justice or taken advantage of because she wouldn't be there to do anything. She turned back to Hunter who seemed to be grinning victoriously.

"And if I refuse?"

Hunter tilted his head at her, "Then you never will be allowed to join the Sentinels. You'll be hunted by them and the police and then you'll rot in jail for as long as I allow you to live. Plus, things can be done to make Bayley's life more difficult with us, so let's just say that you'd do better to accept my offer."

The last thing Becky wanted was for Bayley to be harmed. But the more she thought about it the more she realized that Hunter was bluffing. Bayley not only had Paige, but that it wasn't the same Bayley who needed help and protection anymore. The other Sentinels may never know of the shady deals there government handler was a part in, but Becky trusted Bayley to have the proper moral compass and to protect herself from stuff like this.

She looked up at Hunter, who was grinning in victorious anticipation, "Fuck off." His smile dropped off his face as she called his bluff. "I'm putting Sasha away in jail; anyone who tries to kill her will have to go through me. And if you are what the Sentinels are about, then I never want to be one. Bayley is strong and she is the purest person I know, I don't think you can touch her because you'd be alienating yourself from the entire team whom she's already endeared herself to. No one can dislike Bayley after they talk with her." Becky felt some of her hair catch fire, the first time it had done so since she had woken up. "The little people need someone to fight for them. There are still women being raped, drugs being peddled, and people scared to go out at night. I'm going to be that beacon to them." She smirked, "I'm the same as Sasha, Hunter, just as she should be."

His face dropped into a glare. He took a step away from her and turned. "You're making a big mistake by making an enemy out of me."

Becky nodded, "Maybe, but I'll take the repercussions of my choice, and if I have to, I'll light your entire world on fire on my way down to hell." He moved towards the balcony that she just now realized was open. "Mr. Helmsley."

He turned back towards her, stopping at the threshold of the door. She pointed at the picture frame of her and Sasha still clutched in his hands. "That's mine."

He looked at it, tossing it roughly to the ground, and when the movement distracted her eyes he disappeared into the night.

Bayley burst into Becky's apartment and stopped short. All the lights were on, and Becky was on the couch watching some television show and eating a carton of ice cream.

"Becky?"

She turned and gave Bayley a somewhat genuine smile. "Hey, guys… I'm sorry I left without checking with you but I needed to see the apartment and get used to her not being here. Then I got really sad so I'm," she looked down at the carton that was already half eaten, "processing."

Bayley felt all of her prepared lecture drain out of her and pulled Paige over to the couch to sit down. She hugged her Irish friend before pulling her into both her and Paige so she knew she wouldn't be alone. They sat there in silence for a while, Bayley always turning her eyes back to look at Becky who didn't seem to be paying attention to the television but just quietly thinking to herself.

"Becky, are you really okay? You seem off."

Becky looked at both of them and smiled, "Yeah, I'll be alright I think. Hey, Bayley?"

She gave Becky her full attention and raised her eyebrows, "What's up?"

She sighed; looking the most vulnerable Bayley had seen her ever. "You'll be safe, right? You can defend yourself and look out for yourself?"

Bayley gave a glance to Paige who shrugged, "Yeah, I can defend myself. Plus, Paige will back me up."

Becky seemed to relax a bit. "Good. I just…. I can't lose you, okay? You aren't allowed to go anywhere."

She pulled her orange-haired friend into a bone-crushing side hug and kissed her temple. "You aren't getting rid of me ever."

Becky's breathing returned to normal and she sat up and turned her attention back to the television.

"Do you know what you're going to do about Sasha?" Paige asked and Bayley turned to glare at her. Sometimes her bluntness could hurt people, and Becky could still be fragile.

Becky didn't seem to be affected like Bayley thought, however, and hummed. "Yeah… I'm actually going to head out in a few. I need to talk with her."

Bayley frowned, "You aren't gonna fight her?"

She shook her head, "I owe her the courtesy of a little chat. She was nice enough to fold my clothes so…"

Bayley squeezed her shoulder in comfort. "Becky, are you sure you are ready to do this?"

She chuckled dryly, "I'm never gonna be ready, but I need to do this."

Bayley grabbed her when she tried to stand up. "Not now. Just rest for a bit and you can go in an hour or so. Why don't you let Paige and I braid your hair? No reason you can't look cute when you go and let her know how it is. Plus, playing with your hair relaxes you."

Paige gave Becky a knowing look and Becky blushed, "Yeah, I guess so."

Bayley gave a curious glance at the blush and raised an eyebrow at Paige who shook her head. Bayley shrugged and she got to work on the left side of Becky's head, letting the Irishwoman be alone with her thoughts before the big confrontation with her former best friend. And she pretended not to notice when those thoughts caused Becky to let tears fall down her cheeks again.


	21. Chapter 21

Becky had waited the hour like Bayley had ordered and let the girls braid her hair. It looked incredible. Most of her hair was down like normal and cascaded down her back, but they did some braids near the side of her head. They even did a mini braid that sat on her shoulder prettily. She already had some form of a plan, but it was still a really on-the-fly type of plan that no one would approve of. She had remembered the warehouse that Sasha had taken her to when they first got their powers and knew that Sasha wouldn't give that up, not with Eddie's old low-rider there. She would bet money that Sasha was there, maybe with her new partners, maybe not.

She had geared up and let Paige and Bayley wish her good luck. She tried to leave them with some witty banter that would assure them she'd live through this. Sadly, she was still an emotional mess from coming home and the confrontation with Hunter, so witty word play failed her and all she could come up with was, "Don't have sex on my bed… or my couch."

Bayley had blushed, but Paige grinned placing an arm around her girlfriend. "So does that mean the kitchen table is available?" Becky had let out a laugh that she wished sounded more genuine before leaving through the fire escape.

She ducked through alleys in the dark knowing that she had a couple hours until the sun rose and that'd make it tougher to get around. She meandered her way to the warehouse and staked it out for a solid twenty minutes. There were no signs of life inside, but the lights were on which probably meant that Sasha and her new pals were out killing people, but would return back to this base at some point.

That played perfectly into what Becky needed out of this situation and she darted across to a window. She jiggled it free and slid inside the warehouse that she had such a fond memory of from just a couple months before. She looked around taking in all the differences that Sasha's new job entailed. There were guns hanging around the wall, like so many guns that Becky was curious as to how someone could use all of them in one lifetime. She ignored most of them, she'd had guns pointed at her before and they no longer had any mystique over her.

She looked over to the corner and saw the familiar low-rider of Sasha's adopted father and strolled over to it. Sasha had told her she could look at it, work on it even, and Becky didn't have anything to do until Sasha got here to unknowingly confront her. She reached through the open window of the driver's side and popped the hood to see what the deal was. She whistled as she saw the engine, rather impressed with the late Mr. Guerrero's choice. She bent to look, and aside from some usual wear and tear, it looked in nice shape.

She looked at the compartment where the sparkplugs were supposed to be socketed but frowned when she only saw five. She reached in and brushed up against something loose. She grabbed it and brought it into the light of the warehouse. She looked curiously at the flash drive that she now held. There was a place that allowed someone to write their name on both sides. On one side the flash drive read: To Sasha, and on the other: From Eddie. Becky stared at the flash drive and then the desk, and the small laptop that sat on it.

Sasha giggled as Punk had slung his rifle behind his back and scooped his wife up over his shoulder. They had just come back from a very successful raid. They had shut down an entire cocaine operation and not one of those gangbangers had made it through the door alive.

She moved to open the sliding doors of their warehouse base and immediately felt something was off. Punk must have sensed it to because he set AJ down and readied his gun, nodding to Sasha. She threw the door open and Punk charged in. She followed quickly behind him as AJ brought up the rear, but she crashed into Sasha's back when Sasha had pulled up short.

She had frozen in place looking into the dark goggles of Becky, who was leaning casually against the desk that they had placed in the middle of the room. She looked at each of them in turn, not even pausing when Punk pointed his gun at her, and stopped when her eyes landed on Sasha. Her face betrayed nothing, which freaked Sasha out a bit considering she had always been able to read Becky like an open book. That obviously wasn't the case now.

"Hello, Sasha."

Becky's eyes snapped to the man with the gun, CM Punk, his tactical gear hanging off his body, his hair still slicked back as he took two steps forward, his gun still raised. "Boss, you know this freak?"

Becky's lips quirked, "Well, glad to know I come up in conversations so often."

Sasha gulped and turned to Punk, "This is… my old uh…"

Becky had some sense of satisfaction at the fact that Sasha seemed thrown off. "Friend? Roommate? Partner? Lots of titles you can choose there, Sasha."

Sasha seemed to snap back to herself and engulfed her hands in electricity, "You shouldn't be here."

Becky scoffed, standing upright, her hair beginning to flicker at the ends of her braids. "Oh no, this is exactly where I need to be, not for lack of trying from you to put me out for good." Sasha flinched at the accusation, but Becky had other things to worry about. She glared at Punk. "I swear if you don't tell you're little wife to remove her duplicate from behind me I'll melt her face off with my bare hands."

AJ looked shocked that she had been detected and shimmered a bit, pulling the duplicate that she could make of herself back to the original body. Becky looked between them all again, settling again on Sasha. "I was hoping we could chat. Alone." Becky didn't try to make it sound like a question because it wasn't.

Punk laughed, "Like we'd give up this advantage-"

"Okay."

Punk looked back at her shocked, "C'mon Boss, you can't be serious?"

"I am. This is personal. Go home, I'll handle her." Sasha looked resigned, but still crackling with purple sparks ready for a fight that only Becky knew wasn't going to happen.

Punk and AJ glared at her, "You should be thankful, she saved your life by calling us off."

Becky smirked, "I'll be sure to send a thank you card." She looked around, "Lotta guns here, think someone's compensating for something?"

Becky had to fight off a grin as Punk turned a little red and started towards her, but Sasha stuck her hand out and stopped him. "Leave."

They filtered out throwing snide remarks at Becky as well as hateful glares. Becky ignored all of this in favor of staring down Sasha. After they were gone and it was just the two of them alone, Becky began to lazily pace around the warehouse. "I love what you've done with the place."

Sasha still seemed rooted to her spot, obviously not expecting Becky to be back this soon, if at all. "Are you here to kill me?"

Becky let out a laugh, a hateful laugh that made her sound like a mad woman. "Kill you? No, that'd make me no better than you. And I am," she took her goggles off to glare at Sasha, "better than you."

Sasha, arrogance beginning to cover her like a mask, "You? Better? Don't make me laugh, who sent you to the hospital?"

"The same person that attacked me from behind, the same person whom I trusted over everyone, the same person that I cared for more than anything, and the same person who made me flatline twice."

Sasha looked taken aback, completely on her heels in a conversation which she was not used to. "Y-you-"

Becky held up her hand. "Save it. Nothing you could say would mean anything to me. I'm here to talk, not fight."

She seemed to jump on the opportunity while trying to gather her thoughts, "That's always your problem Becky! You try to save everyone and you're too lenient! You don't make a true difference because you let the problem live. That's why I'm better and always will be."

"Choosing not to kill someone is not a weakness, Sasha. It proves I still have humanity left and a hope for change." Becky took a step towards Sasha, taking down her bandana mask. Sasha backtracked a step, her arms still covered in electricity.

"You let the problem grow that way. And if you get in my way, then I'll do what I have to do to bring about the change that this city needs." Sasha was goal oriented and nothing would get in her way. She'd regret it later, but that wouldn't stop her from killing Becky if she had to. So despite the quiver in her voice, Becky believed her.

Becky kept walking toward Sasha, her hair beginning to smolder more. "Well, then I hate to tell you this, but I'm going to be getting in your way a lot. Because, Bayley brought up a good point, you are still a good person at heart but this whole issue that you decided was more important than our friendship has you misguided."

Sasha opened up her mouth, but Becky cut her off. "No! You are going to shut up and listen to me for once! The only reason I'm not hauling you away and burning your eyebrows off is because I need to say this for me! I'm going to bring back the Sasha that I knew, the one that I cared about, the one that I loved." Becky was now towering over the smaller woman, whose electricity had long since evaporated as her eyes were widened. Becky's voice continued to drop in volume, her eyes staring into Sasha's very soul. "I'm going to haunt you, Sasha, and I won't stop until I beat you and stick you in prison. And even though you'll always be my friend, and I'll always care about you, I won't regret taking you down." Sasha's eyes dropped to the ground, not even able to look at Becky now. Becky stood up straighter and looked down at the woman she had once known, her voice now a powerful whisper. "Because, in the end, you'll deserve it."

She bumped Sasha's shoulder on the way out, but before she walked through the door, knowing next time they saw one another they'd be trying to hurt one another, she turned back. "I left something I found in your dad's car. You said I could work on it, so… I didn't look at it. Promise. If you care."

She gave Sasha one last look, but the magenta-haired girl was still facing the way she had been when Becky was towering over her with her head looking down. Becky sighed, closing her eyes. She let all the fun times of her and Sasha at the carnival, or cuddling at home on the couch fly through her mind, knowing that next time they'd be fighting and that same person would be trying to kill her. She slowly let those memories fall away as there'd be no use for them anymore, but she was selfish and wanted to replay all the good memories with the woman that she cared about most in the world one last time. She opened her eyes and turned away before the first tear could slip out and stepped out into the night.

Becky slid down against the alley wall and let the first flickers of the day move along the wall. That was a lot more emotionally draining than she thought it'd be, and she needed to catch her breath.

"Tough break, Irish."

Her head shot up to lock eyes with Dean. He stood there in his usual tank top and leather jacket. His tank top was slashed and shot through, skin unharmed, to show that he had been having a productive night.

She sniffed a bit, not even bothering to pull her goggles on quickly or pull her bandana up. "You heard that?"

"Pretty much all of it actually. Sorry about that. Heard you were out of the hospital and wanted to check on you."

She let out a wet laugh, thinking about how he'd visited her in the hospital. "You do care."

He nods, "I do. Which is why I think I need to make sure you get back safely."

Becky was about to stand up and head back home with Dean, but remembered what Hunter had said, and that he knew exactly where she lived. "I can't go back to my place. Or I can't live there, at least."

Dean furrowed his brow, leaning against the opposite wall, "I need some context here."

She sighed and just unloaded on him all that had happened with Hunter. Becky couldn't tell any of this to Bayley or Paige, as he was basically their boss and it'd be a tough story to believe, but Dean was impartial. She didn't know what it was about him that made her want to spill her guts to her fellow vigilante, but he certainly had something about him that did.

"So you got a visit from Triple H?"

She blinked, surprised. "You know him?"

He shrugged, "You could say that. Listen, he doesn't know where I live, but he does know about the bar. You can stay with me if you want."

Becky's heart skipped a beat at the offer, a smile taking over her face. "That'd be really awesome, actually. Thank you."

He shrugged at her, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "We can go pick up your stuff whenever and move it. But I have one condition." Becky stood up and gestured for him to go on. "I think that Banks is on to something with forming a team. We could fight against what she's doing, and help more people if we all worked together, especially with the good guys and bad guys gunning for us."

Becky definitely liked the sound of that. Having a partner again, especially so she wouldn't have to deal with Sasha and both Punk and AJ Lee. But she frowned, "We all?"

Dean opened his mouth to reply, but then a mad cackle slashed through the air and the temperature in the alley dropped as a figure in black and white seemed to step out from nowhere twirling around an umbrella. He looked at Becky with white irises and gave a crazy grin before laughing loudly, piercing the air uncomfortably.

Becky knew who this was. Willow the Wisp the papers called him. He was a teleporter and all around creepy dude, he hadn't killed anyone, which confused a lot of people considering how crazy he was. Her eyes were wide and looked at Dean for what she should do.

He grinned at her and shrugged, "I usually take that to mean that he likes you. So the three of us will be fighting crime, drinking, and all that fun stuff. What do you say?"

Becky looked between Dean and Willow. She knew she wanted to work with Dean, and she'd trust his judgment on Willow, at least until she got a better read on him herself. It felt like the beginning of a new chapter for her, especially with the morning sun just beginning to rise.

She sighed before making grabby hands at Dean, who turned around and allowed her to jump onto his back for a piggyback ride. "Fine, but drinks are on you."

He chuckled, beginning to take the alleyways back to his bar with Becky on his back and Willow disappearing, hopefully meeting them at the bar so she could get to know him better. "Aren't they always on me, since I own a bar?"

"I didn't know vehicles that carry lasses everywhere complained so much. Now, onward for the Team Spitfire get to know you meeting!" She kicked his thighs with her feet to get him to hurry up and he just chuckled.

As they began to bicker on the way to Cactus Jack's, Becky couldn't help but feel hopeful for the future. She may have lost so much in these last few months, but she had changed and adapted to these horrible conditions and now, even though she knew that in the very near future she'd be fighting Sasha, Charlotte, and this new threat from Triple H, she still had Bayley, she still had a drive to bring justice and help people, and now she had Dean and Willow. The future may be dark and uncertain but some things were finally beginning to look up again.


End file.
